Dear members of the Moderated Classical Music List, Regarding Warner's
decision to discontinue Koopman's cantata project, here are some facts.

(a) The original plan was to issue the complete cantata cycle on 22
volumes.  12 of which have already been released.  Vol.  13, 14, and 15 are
already recorded.

(b) Koopman records twice a year, and the next session which starts in
a few weeks is Vol.  16.  It is with soloists Johannette Zomer, Bogna
Bartosz, Christoph Pregardien and Klaus Mertens.  Koopman has also finished
recording most of the important solo and dialogue cantatas last June, which
was supposed to appear later in the series.

(c) It is very unlikely at this point, that Warner will change its
decision.  They know it is a successful series that sells - in a classical
music sense - well.  It seems to be a purely business decision, which must
be taking over all the big record companies.

(d) However, Koopman seems to have decided to go ahead with the recordings
anyway, and hopes to bring them to public in one way or another.

To sum up, Warner will stop, but Koopman has decided to continue.

The three already complete cantata cycles (Rilling, Harnoncourt &
Leonhardt, Leusink) are not to everybody's taste, and each one of them
has its own deficiencies.  There is a need for more complete cantata
cycles, and Koopman has done enough to prove that his renditions can in
many cases be counted among the best.  The community of Classical Music
lovers has the power to influence.  If the members believe that it is a
real shame that Warner stops this beautiful series and would like to make
the effort to send Warner a petition, it is of course so much better than
nothing, and I believe it would encourage Koopman and his group.

Following the feedabck from the members of the Bach Cantatas Mailing List
and the Bach Recordings Mailing List, I opened a special e-mail address to
which you are invited to send your requests regarding the continuation of
this important project:

The e-mail addess is: [log in to unmask]

My intention is to compile all the messages and to send them both to Warner
Group and Koopman Website.  I hope that in that way we can be of some help
in encouraging the continuation of this project.  I compiled the messages
that have been sent so far in the following page:
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Koopman-Petition.htm There is also
a link to this page from the Home Page of the Bach Cantatas Website:
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/

You are invited to send your opinion to the above e-mail address.

Thanks and Enjoy,

Aryeh Oron
WebMaster of Bach Cantatas Website: http://www.bach-cantatas.com