The Netherlands Bach Society (which sounds like an organization for people who are into Bach, but it's an ensemble, though one that has been in existence for mo

The Netherlands Bach Society (which sounds like an organization for people who are into Bach, but it's an ensemble, though one that has been in existence for more than 100 years) is fantastic. Some of my favourite Bach performances are by them [1]. Another Dutch "complete Bach" project from recent years that I enjoyed: Leusink's complete set of recordings of Bach's sacred cantatas with the Holland Boy's Choir and Netherlands Bach Collegium (1999-2000), recorded over the span of just 15 months. A year ago I listened to the entire thing, which took me three months. (It's quite good. But in my opinion, this haste is reflected in the performances a little bit; they are very competent, to be sure, but they lack some nuance, perhaps especially in the sound mix. For whatever reason, I much prefer the NBS recordings of most of these cantatas. (I don't really like Sytse Buwalda's voice, either.) Compare their BWV 21 [2] with NBS [3]. The beautiful interplay between first violin and oboe in the NBS recording is rather lost in the Leusink version, and the sound muddier. Admittedly the NBS version appears to replace the organ with some extra strings, but to me it just sounds crisper and more carefully performed. This really extends to everything. I hope NBS will one day release a complete cantata box set.) [1] https://youtu.be/N6sUlZa-IrU?si=0Ls7CTQ4UiMyDB0b https://youtu.be/N6sUlZa-IrU?si=0Ls7CTQ4UiMyDB0b [2] https://youtu.be/JGT0iPpU9is?si=qVMJTYhANI8adHop https://youtu.be/JGT0iPpU9is?si=qVMJTYhANI8adHop [3] https://open.spotify.com/track/6MLmB5GDhAJr3cxMKKXUzs?si=xcVyKAdrTgSaI4PIkFtmlQ https://open.spotify.com/track/6MLmB5GDhAJr3cxMKKXUzs?si=xcV...