With a voice essentially bass-baritone in range but with a lighter, more baritonal coloring, Max van Egmond achieved considerable fame through his series of Bach oratorio recordings made for Teldec under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt. His smooth, soft-edged timbre fit the lyric approach Harnoncourt favored, if missing something of the fire and intensity brought to Bach's bass arias by certain other singers such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and John Shirley-Quirk. In collaboration with these celebrated conductors, however, he found his way to an unde...