Bach's B Minor Mass
Posted by: u5227470736789439 on 23 April 2007
Dear Friends,
Sadly this Thread from February has timed out.
Bach's B Minor Mass.
Two nights ago I dug out the performance under Richter on DG Archiv, and after the performance by Enescu discussed in the earlier Thread, this was something very fascinating.
It is a real studio recording with the disadvantages that brings. It is slower than Enescu in the main though certain fast tempo sections are rather faster. In fact the result is disjointed. What struck me is that for all the technical perfection this now sounds like a rehearsal, and one where there have been stops edited out. The solo singing is glorious, but the Choir is not engaging with the text. Really this shows just how much the enemy of the good the great really is. I was terribly dissapointed to find this to be the case in this instance.
One particularly uninvolving moment is the "Confeteor in una baptisma," where the choir is accompanied only by continuo. With Enescu there is an almost other worldly intensity in this which leads to a glorious second half when the trumpets and drums join in some D Major sunshine. Here one senses almost a longing for the movement to be over faster than the slow tempo allows for. The tenors particularly are very slack and flaccid, albeit that on paer their line might look a bit dull, but for for Enescu they bring the line, based on a sucession of repeted noted in the main, out as it is, a potent counterpoint to all the motion going on in the other lines. For Bach, if Richter had done his reading, repeated notes speak of umplaccable strength and inevitablity. Some of Bach's most powerful fugues are based on such unlikely sounding ideas, but sung like the tenors for Richter, I think they sound like they wish they were somewhere else...
I also have the Leonhardt set, which at least has fervour in its favour! Some of the choral singing does, in that set, sound like breathing and articulationb excercises, rather than an engagement with the text though. Strange how music so rooted in the words can be so misunderstood in its purpose.
Really the Mass seems, like the Saint Matthew Passion, to work more effectively in live performances.
Kindest regardds from Fredrik
Sadly this Thread from February has timed out.
Bach's B Minor Mass.
Two nights ago I dug out the performance under Richter on DG Archiv, and after the performance by Enescu discussed in the earlier Thread, this was something very fascinating.
It is a real studio recording with the disadvantages that brings. It is slower than Enescu in the main though certain fast tempo sections are rather faster. In fact the result is disjointed. What struck me is that for all the technical perfection this now sounds like a rehearsal, and one where there have been stops edited out. The solo singing is glorious, but the Choir is not engaging with the text. Really this shows just how much the enemy of the good the great really is. I was terribly dissapointed to find this to be the case in this instance.
One particularly uninvolving moment is the "Confeteor in una baptisma," where the choir is accompanied only by continuo. With Enescu there is an almost other worldly intensity in this which leads to a glorious second half when the trumpets and drums join in some D Major sunshine. Here one senses almost a longing for the movement to be over faster than the slow tempo allows for. The tenors particularly are very slack and flaccid, albeit that on paer their line might look a bit dull, but for for Enescu they bring the line, based on a sucession of repeted noted in the main, out as it is, a potent counterpoint to all the motion going on in the other lines. For Bach, if Richter had done his reading, repeated notes speak of umplaccable strength and inevitablity. Some of Bach's most powerful fugues are based on such unlikely sounding ideas, but sung like the tenors for Richter, I think they sound like they wish they were somewhere else...
I also have the Leonhardt set, which at least has fervour in its favour! Some of the choral singing does, in that set, sound like breathing and articulationb excercises, rather than an engagement with the text though. Strange how music so rooted in the words can be so misunderstood in its purpose.
Really the Mass seems, like the Saint Matthew Passion, to work more effectively in live performances.
Kindest regardds from Fredrik