Comparison Recordings:
BWV 249, 11 Helmut Rilling, Augér,
[ADD] Hänssler Bach Edition 077
BWV 249, 11 Helmut Rilling, Augér,
[ADD] Musical Heritage Society 5160954
[North America Only]
BWV 249, Prohaska, Rössl-Majdan,
Berry, Equiluz; Wobisch, tr.; Rapf, keybs;
[ADD] Bach Guild OVC 2542
BWV 249 and 243 Eugene Ormandy/Leonard
Bernstein [ADD] Sony SBK 60261
If I had any lingering
reservations about Japanese performing
Bach, they were completely swept away
by my hearing and watching their DVD
performance of the St. John Passion,
certainly the best I’ve ever encountered.
This BWV 249 is as
close to perfect a Bach recording as
I’ve ever heard. The performance is
full of life, full of Baroque spirit
while being strict to the letter of
authentic practice. The horns have just
the right amount of grit, the strings
just bouncy enough. Balances side to
side and front to back are perfect.
Balance between instruments, chorus
and soloists is perfect. The soloists
are exceptional, especially the counter-tenor
Patrick van Goethem. Those who think
Berlioz invented orchestration should
ponder the amazing sound Bach gets with
flutes and strings in the accompaniment
to "Sanfte soll, Mein Todeskummer...",
clearly projecting the mood of a Spring
day with the murmur of birdsong and
a gentle zephyr rustling the tree leaves.*
Helmut Rilling plays
the same music on his disk. Rilling
was the first to do what Suzuki is doing
now, that is, recording the complete
cantatas, but Rilling’s soloists are
more operatic in style, and some may
prefer this. Also, while keeping a strict
overall Baroque rhythmic pulse, Rilling
makes very subtle adjustments to the
tempo of the accompaniment to good dramatic
effect. By comparison, Suzuki is perfectly
precise and a little cool in style,
yet there is no lack of feeling.
I listened to this
recording on bud earphones with my portable
player, on my computer speakers, and
in five channel sound with my big system.
Every way the sound of the disk is outstanding.
If forced to make a negative comment,
I would wonder why there is so little
information in the rear channels, just
hall ambience, about what a good generic
four channel decoder would provide.
Why bother with four or five channel
recording if all you’re going to do
is add ambience? Why not use the extra
channels to move the listener closer
to the performers? I would like to hear
this music the way Bach heard it, seated
at the harpsichord with the performers
forming a 270° panorama around him.
Bach never heard his music as on this
recording, from 20 meters away in the
tenth row of seating. The conductor
Suzuki isn’t listening to this music
that way either, at least not until
the playback sessions with the engineers.
What is authentic?
In any discussion of
this music we must mention the Eugene
Ormandy recording with the whole Philadelphia
Orchestra and a stellar group of soloists.
Ormandy shows us that his understanding
of baroque style was second to none
and he makes his huge group of players
move with dazzling lightness and accuracy
to remain within his brisk tempi. The
aria "Saget mir geschwinde"
with Maureen Forrester and Murray Panitz
as flute soloist has never been as beautifully
and affectingly sung. Also on this disk,
we move from the generally under-rated
Eugene Ormandy to the frequently over-rated
Leonard Bernstein, but here Bernstein,
with the entire New York Philharmonic
Orchestra and Schola Cantorum, gives
us a performance of Bach’s Magnificat
fully equal to the highest of his reputation.
The energy and commitment of instrumentalists,
choristers, and engineers are breathtaking
and the musicianship is exemplary, but
it is mainly the performance by the
amazing Russell Oberlin singing the
alto part that is the indispensable,
irreplaceable document. Mr. Oberlin,
having recorded almost his entire repertoire
once (but never Britten’s Midsummer
Night’s Dream, which, fortunately,
I saw him sing in Los Angeles), decided
he liked teaching more than concertizing
and abruptly retired at the peak of
his acclaim, leaving the rest of us
to labor in search of disks which become
more and more rare. We are fortunate
that Sony has released this disk on
CD in its super bargain ‘Essential Classics’
series, and I urge you, no matter how
many recordings of this music you have,
to buy it quickly before it disappears.
The venerable Prohaska
recording will still be cherished by
some as the finest version ever done
as well as the very first. The singers
are Vienna Opera stars and their German
declamation is fluent and overwhelmingly
immediate; I think native German speakers
will prefer this version above all others
in the same way that English speakers
cherish the great Bach Guild Purcell
recordings of the 1960s.** Hilde Rössl-Majdan
yields very little to Maureen Forreser
in her urgent and committed performance
of "Saget mir, geschwinde..."
Prohaska’s Viennese lilt to Bach’s rhythms,
especially the three-quarter time, has
about it an undefinable exquisiteness
making Suzuki sound mechanical by comparison,
but only in comparison. The sweet 1951
recording shows the typical intermodulation
distortion ravages of analogue low headroom
recording (digital processing should
be able to remove that someday!). On
this disk the companion is the greatest
studio recording ever made of the Cantata
#4 (The greatest live performance broadcast
I ever heard was with Musica Sacra from
New York, but more of that on another
day) saying quite a lot for this often
recorded work.
So, I’ve sold you on
three recordings of this work which
as a collector you must have; but if
you buy only one recording, buy the
Suzuki.
*While listening to
this music it suddenly occurred to me
that Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto
#6 is a tone poem depicting a German
tavern. We begin with the murmur of
— mostly masculine — conversation, then
a small group has a very emotional discussion,
then somebody gets up to dance and others
join in. See what you think. I don’t
mean to suggest that the work has
to have such a scenario, but I am saying
that I don’t think it is possible for
a poet to avoid such images appearing
subliminally in his work. I think Bach
has such ideas in mind more than people
have been willing to consider. Nobody
denies all the religious images, why
not non-religious ones as well?
** Purcell sung with
a French accent is like single malt
Scotch whiskey with ice cubes in it.
Never mind that at the first performances
some of the singers may have had
French accents!
Paul Shoemaker
Visit the Bach
Collegium Japan webpage for reviews of other releases
in this series
Bach Collegium Musicum Japan/Masaaki Suzuki
BIS
SACD 1561 [70.28] 
