Comparison
audio only recordings:
Hermann
Scherchen, VSOO. MCA Westminster MCAD2 9804
Anthony
Newman, Brandenburg Collegium Orchestra, Newport Classics
NC 60015/1/2
I am the worst possible audience for this music. I
am not only not a Christian but I am vigorously
unsympathetic to the blood-and-guts aspect of the Christian
mythos represented by this work. But I must tell you that
whatever negative feelings I may have felt towards the
subject, every reservation I attempted to raise was swept
away by the power and drama of the music and the commitment
of the performers.
I hope video director Shokichi Amano will forgive
me when I say he has no imagination, and that I praise
him for that. Clearly he kept his eyes glued to the score
and throughout the recording we were looking exactly where
we would be looking if we were present in the hall. There
were no sunsets, no adorable children or lovely flowers,
no abstract close-ups of musical instruments against colored
spotlights. We were simply there with the music, with
the performers, seeing just what we wanted to see at every
moment. I hope Shokichi Amano has a long career in and
directs many, many more DVD performances.
I’ve mentioned in my reviews that for the first
hearing I generally put on a recording of an opera without
even reading the synopsis and dare the music to grab me. In
this case I even walked out of the room so that I wouldn’t
be distracted by the video images. But I couldn’t break
the spell of the music, I remained ensnared by it from
beginning to end, and when it was over was sorry there
was no more.
Video quality is brilliant and crisp and beautifully
detailed, even in telephoto shots. There is little enough
color; the performers wear black and white and the wood
tones from the instruments and the walls of the hall are
the only relief. Masaaki Suzuki’s long white hair is at
times as important as his hands in conveying his feelings
to the performers.
All the soloists are excellent, but counter-tenor
Robin Blaze should be especially praised. His voice is
strong, dramatic, secure and vividly colored. Some may
prefer a female alto in this role, but no male alto is
likely ever to surpass this performance. Tenor Gerd Türk
should also be singled out for praise, for he, as the Evangelist,
has the most to do and never for a moment slips from perfect
beauty of tone and strength of commitment.
Soprano Midori Suzuki has some difficult moments
in her aria “Zerfliesse mein Herze” which is placed cruelly
high in her range and comes late in the long evening. Julianne
Baird, who sang such a beautiful Cantata No. 51 for Joshua
Rifkin, does this aria superbly for Anthony Newman on his
recording with the “Brandenburg Collegium Orchestra” made
up of New York City’s finest early music players. Phyllis
Curtin taking the repeat in her recording of this aria
for Hermann Scherchen shows the same thrilling power and
endurance in her highest notes that made headlines when
she first recorded the “dança” from the Villa-Lobos Bachianas
Brasileiras No. 5. Considering that it takes this
level of big guns to score a bulls-eye on this extremely
difficult aria, Midori Suzuki’s performance is in every
way a worthy accomplishment.
The audience must have agreed with my appraisal
as they produced a seven minute ovation and demanded five
curtain calls. I have not seen the DVDs of this music
performed by Peter Schreier, or Karl Munchinger; these
may equal, but I can’t believe they could surpass, this
performance.
The packaging claims dts sound, however there
are no dts tracks on this disk, nor on the North American
region 1 release. Excellent sound is obtained from the
PCM tracks, using your surround-sound processor as you
choose.
Paul Shoemaker
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Gerd
Türk, tenor; Midori Suzuki, soprano; Robin Blaze, counter-tenor;
Chiyuki Urano, bass-baritone; Stephan MacLeod, bass. 
[117.00] 
