The choral foundation
at the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, dates
back as far as 1212 and the records
of the Cantors, responsible for the
music there, go back at least as far
as the late fifteenth century. Johann
Sebastian Bach was Cantor between 1723
and 1750 and this ten-disc set lets
us hear examples of his sacred choral
music conducted by four of his successors
in the post. In chronological order
of service these are Günther Ramin
(Cantor 1940-1956); Kurt Thomas (1957-1960);
Erhard Mauersberger (1961-1972); and
Hans-Joachim Rotzsch (1972-1991).
The set is revealing
in all sorts of ways, not least in showing
how styles of Bach performance changed
over the second half of the twentieth
century. It also offers a vivid illustration
of the advances in choral singing during
the same period.
The first two discs
contain a 1954 performance of the St
John Passion directed by Günther
Ramin (1898-1956). The performance has
two major attractions: one is singing
of Ernst Häfliger, who sings the
tenor arias as well as the role of the
Evangelist; the other is the presence
of the peerless Agnes Giebel, one of
the finest of all Bach sopranos.
Häfliger is a
first-rate Evangelist. He sings with
clarity and intelligence throughout
and his identification with the text
is complete. He really tells the story
and his tone throughout the compass
of his voice, his forward projection
and his clear diction consistently give
pleasure. I was a little less happy
with the arias. He sings the very difficult
‘Ach, mein Sinn’ with a good, full voice.
However, when it comes to the equally
demanding ‘Erwäge, wie sein blutgefärbter
Rücken’ he sounds as if the cruel
tessitura has put him under strain once
or twice. Frankly this aria needs a
lighter touch than either Häfliger
or his conductor supply.
Franz Kelch sings the
role of Jesus, as he was to do a few
years later for Fritz Werner [review],
a recording in which Marga Höffgen
also appeared. Kelch is not in the same
league as Häfliger. His singing
is somewhat heavy, as at ‘Redest du
das vor dir selbst’ in the scene in
Part One with Pilate (CD 1, track 26).
But I don’t think Ramin helps him very
much, consistently setting tempi for
Kelch’s passages that are slow, often
to the point of being ponderous. There’s
an example of this just a few bars further
on in the same track at the words ‘Mein
Reich is nicht von dieser Welt’.
Marga Höffgen
sings her arias well. In ‘Von den Stricken’
her voice is well controlled and she
sings expressively without overdoing
things. She and Ramin give a slow, intense
performance of ‘Es ist vollbracht!’
Here too Höffgen is most expressive
and she’s well supported by the obbligato
cellist. However, even greater pleasure
is provided by Agnes Giebel. She offers
a lovely delivery in ‘Ich folge dir
gleichfalls’, where her tone is light
and silvery. Her singing in this aria
is beautifully poised and I enjoyed
too the hint of breathiness in the flute
playing; I suspect the flautist may
have been using a wooden instrument.
Much later, in ‘Zerfliesse, mein Herze’,
she’s gently beseeching in a way that
I find most moving.
Unfortunately not all
the singing is at this level and I’m
sorry to say that one of the main problems
I have with this performance lies in
the singing of the choir itself. Listeners
will notice a certain edge, even rawness
in the tone from time to time. We hear
this with their very first chords, on
the word ‘Herr’ in the opening chorus.
And it’s there again in the chorus ‘Wäre
dieser nicht ein Überläter’
Actually, I find this edge not inappropriate,
particularly in the crowd scenes. What’s
much harder to take, however, is the
all-too frequent fallibility of intonation,
especially – but not solely – on the
part of the trebles. One notices this,
for instance, in the chorale ‘Wer hat
dich so geschlagen’ in Part One. Another
instance comes in the chorus ‘Sei gegrüsset,
lieber Judenkönig’. Sadly, these
are not the only examples and one’s
listening pleasure is diminished as
a result.
The conducting of Günther
Ramin is clearly inspired by a deep
devotion to and identification with
the music and with the Passion story
itself. I just wish I didn’t find his
conducting so earthbound at times. The
very opening of the piece offers a case
in point. The orchestral introduction
to the first chorus is one of the most
extraordinarily intense passages in
Western music. The tension should be
screwed up inexorably so that the choir’s
first cry of ‘Herr’ confronts the listener
head-on. The choir’s singing at this
point is actually quite arresting but
what has preceded it is not. Ramin just
doesn’t build up the tension in the
way that, say, Benjamin Britten or John
Eliot Gardiner does. Matters improve
thereafter but this is never a reading
that excites or involves me, I find.
In Part Two the chorus ‘Wie haben ein
Gesetz’ just lumbers along at a dreadfully
ponderous tempo that robs the music
of all energy. Yet, surprisingly, when
the music is reprised just a few minutes
later – ‘Lässet du diesen los’
- Ramin adopts a quicker speed, greatly
to the music’s advantage. Yet he and
the choir do some good things too, In
Part Two, when the soldiers divide Christ’s
clothing – ‘Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen’
– the singers display a rare lightness
and I very much like the way that Ramin
builds the excitement by means of a
very gradual crescendo. I feared that
the final chorus, ‘Ruht woll’ might
be on the slow side but in fact Ramin
moves it on nicely.
I wish I could be more
enthusiastic about this performance
but the deficiencies in the choral singing
are a problem and Ramin’s direction
is often too heavy for my taste and
it hasn’t got sufficient fire and drive
in it. This is a devotional work, to
be sure, but it’s also a piece of religious
theatre and a successful performance
needs more of a sense of drama than
I hear in this account. However, as
part of this collection it’s welcome
for the performances of Ernst Häfliger
and Agnes Giebel in particular.
The next three discs
offer us performances by Ramin’s successor
as Cantor, Kurt Thomas (1904-1973).
There are five cantatas plus performances
of the Magnificat and the six
Motets BWV 225-230. For me the pick
of the bunch is Agnes Giebel’s performance
of the cantata Jauchzet Gott in
allen Landen BWV 51. Her
singing of the exultant opening aria
has marvellous clarity and despite the
demanding passagework she still takes
great care with the words. The Recitativo
that follows is paced a bit on the slow
side but Giebel’s radiant singing makes
one forget that. Her glorious delivery
of the line ‘Wie priesen, was er an
uns hat getan’ is a moment to savour
and she ravishes the ear with a stream
of pure silvery tone in the aria that
follows. I felt that the duetting violins
in the chorale movement were rather
two prominent – it almost sounds like
a movement from a Double Concerto with
background vocal obbligato In the concluding
‘Alleluia’ aria the pace is quite steady
but the performance exudes joy. Here,
as in the opening movement, there’s
a splendid contribution from trumpeter,
Armin Männel. This is a quite marvellous
performance and I’m delighted it’s been
included.
I also enjoyed the
account of Wer mich liebet, der
wird mein Wort halten BWV 59,
in which Theo Adam is the bass soloist,
though this is not clear from the documentation.
He and Agnes Giebel sing very well,
with Giebel distinguishing herself particularly
through the expressive and spacious
way she delivers the recitative ‘O!
was sind das für Ehren’. It’s also
noticeable that the choral contribution
is much better than was the case in
the St. John from five years
earlier. Here one can detect a much-improved
intonation and there’s a much better
body of sound and internal balance.
The performance of
the Magnificat in D major
BWV 243 is rather variable. It starts
quite promisingly with a joyful rendition
of the opening chorus but then Kurt
Thomas adopts some tempi that I find
rather stodgy, such as in the two soprano
arias, ‘Et exultavit’ and ‘Quia respexit’,
though the artistry of Agnes Giebel
makes the latter, in particular, an
enjoyable listen. Hermann Prey sounds
a bit ponderous in his solos. It’s interesting
to hear as the tenor soloist Hans-Joachim
Rotzch, who was soon to become Cantor
himself. He sings well. All in all,
however, this doesn’t strike me as a
very imaginative account of this great
work.
Thomas’s second disc
is devoted to three solo cantatas. Marga
Höffgen is good in BWV 54.
Hers is a true contralto voice and she
sings with a good full tone. This is
a strongly projected performance in
which the singer puts quite a good deal
of emphasis on the words, thereby illustrating
the dangers of sin. I was less convinced
by Hermann Prey’s performance of BWV
82. I’m afraid the sublime opening
aria is taken at a pace that’s enervatingly
slow. Prey and Thomas take 8:58 over
this movement. Another singer from the
same generation, Hans Hotter, requires
only 8:08 in his 1950 reading (EMI)
whole among more modern readings Janet
Baker (1966, also EMI) takes 6:62, Lorraine
Hunt Lieberson (2002, Nonesuch) 7:40
and Thomas Quasthoff (2004, DG) 6:50.
Though Prey sings well, even his vocal
quality can’t save the day. The marvellous
central aria, ‘Schlummert ein’, is similarly
earthbound, taking 11:05. The concluding
aria is a bit livelier but even here
one can’t escape the general feeling
of morose heaviness and matters aren’t
improved by an emphatic orchestral bass
line. This is not a performance to which
I shall wish to return.
Prey is heard to better
advantage in BWV 56. The opening
aria is, again, very measured – Prey
takes 8:26 against Quasthoff’s 7:00
– but at least there’s more nobility
to be heard. The fine aria, ‘Endlich,
endlich wird mein Joch’ features a nimble
oboist and well articulated divisions
from Prey and there’s a welcome spring
in the step of the music even if the
tempo is not as sprightly as some I’ve
heard.
The third and final
disc from Thomas brings us the six Motets,
BWV 225 – 230. I wish that Berlin
Classics could have tracked separately
the various sections of each motet,
such as BWV 227, which has no less than
11 sections. Sadly, however, each motet
is presented as a single track. The
performances are not particularly memorable,
I fear. In part I wonder if this is
because the choir was recorded with
the microphones placed too closely.
That places the choir under a scrutiny
that they can’t always withstand. So,
for instance, in BWV 225 there
isn’t unanimity of ensemble in the first
few bars and the intonation of the trebles
is suspect at times and unfortunately
these flaws are present throughout the
performance of this piece. I don’t find
sufficient rhythmic vitality; there’s
no real spring in the key word ‘Singet.’
Later in the piece, when the counterpoint
gets going, the choir sings lustily
and with some energy but with little
dynamic variety, I found listening a
rather wearying experience. The slower
second section (track 1 from 6:09) is
better but I didn’t really care for
the choir’s tone, which sounded edgy
to me. Frankly, the singers sound challenged
to their limits by this piece and the
choral blend is not good. The performance
of BWV 226 is more ingratiating
because there’s more dynamic contrast
in the singing and the choir sounds
much better blended. The fugal section
(track 2 from 4:23) is well delineated.
.
BWV 227 has
some good moments, such as the opening,
where there’s welcome attention to dynamics,
and the fifth section (track 3 from
6:46) where the singing has good bite.
Against this, however, must be set the
eighth section (from 13:20) where I
hear more fallible intonation. BWV
229 is well projected and the choir
sings it with conviction. In BWV
230 there’s ample vigour in the
singing though I would have welcomed
more evidence of light and shade. In
all, this account of the Motets has
some positive features but I can’t honestly
say that the standard of performance
or interpretation is consistently high
enough.
Discs six and seven
bring us examples of the work of Erhard
Mauersberger (1903-1982). I found his
performances more consistently enjoyable,
not least because his pacing of the
music is pretty good throughout. BWV
80 opens with vigour and strength
in the choral singing. This first movement,
in which Mauersberger rightly eschews
the trumpets and drums added to the
scoring after Bach’s death by his son,
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, is a superb
invention. In his standard work, The
Cantatas of J. S. Bach (1992)
Alfred Dürr declares that this
opening chorus "probably represents
the high point of Bach’s chorale-based
vocal music." That judgement is
certainly vindicated by Mauersberger’s
incisive performance. He benefits from
a fine team of soloists with Theo Adam
on trenchant form and Agnes Giebel radiant
in the reposeful aria ‘Komm in mein
Herzenshaus’. We also encounter Peter
Schreier for the first time. In the
first recitative that he sings, ‘So
stehe dann’, he invests every word with
meaning and his voice has that tangy
ring that always made his singing so
distinctive
BWV 140 is also
a success. Giebel and Adam offer distinguished
accounts of the two duets, in the second
of which Willy Gerlach is the excellent
and tireless oboist. The famous chorale
‘Zion hört die Wächter singen’
is sung as a solo by Schreier, a decision
of which I approve very much. The final
item on disc six features Schreier alone
in the solo cantata Ich armer Mensch,
ich Sündenknecht BWV 55. He
does it very well and the distinctive
grain and timbre of his voice suit this
piece very well. The taxing tessitura
of the opening aria, depicting "the
writhing sinner" (Dürr), seems
to pose him no problems at all and this
cantata offers further evidence of his
consummate skill in Bachian recitative.
The aria, ‘Erbarme dich’, splendidly
sung, also features a flute obbligato,
which is excellently played.
On the second of Mauersberger’s
discs it’s good to find Berlin Classics
have included a cantata, BWV 18,
that’s not as well known as some. It’s
a cantata for Sexagesima Sunday and
the libretto burns with Reformation
zeal. One of it’s most unusual features,
unique in the cantatas so far as I know,
is the third movement. This takes the
form of a recitativo for tenor and bass
soloists, here the excellent Schreier
and Adam. Their passages are punctuated
by short passages of a Litany, sung
by the soprano soloist, here Adele Stolte,
each of which is followed by a brief
response by the choir. The Litany includes
one choice passage that reads, in Richard
Jones’s translation: "And from
the Turk’s and the Pope’s cruel murder
and blasphemies, rages and storms, preserve
us like a father." Strong stuff
indeed! Agnes Stolte is a singer who
I’ve not heard before but she does well
in her aria ‘Mein Seelenschatz ist Gottes
Wort’, where she receives support from
a most effective obbligato furnished
by four violas and two recorders in
unison.
The other two cantatas
are much more familiar. In the opening
chorus of the Advent cantata BWV
62 it’s noticeable how much more
secure in intonation the trebles sound
than on earlier discs. The "joyfully
soaring aria" (Dürr) ‘Bewundert,
o Menschen, dies grosse Geheimnis’ is
perfectly suited to Peter Schreier,
who displays enviable breath control.
Theo Adam is also well suited to the
robust bass aria ‘Streite, siege, starker
held!’ In the opening chorus of BWV
78 I admired the way Mauersberger
brings out all the lines, both choral
and orchestral, with clarity. The duet
for soprano and alto is beautifully
balanced and Schreier is once again
equal to all the demands that Bach places
on his solo tenor. The last aria in
the piece, ‘Nun du wirst mein Gewissen
stillen’, includes a rippling oboe obbligato,
well taken here, which partners Adam
in an excellent account of this vigorous
aria.
The remainder of the
set consists of three CDs in which the
baton is in the hands of the immediate
past Cantor, Hans-Joachim Rotzch. There’s
another important change for these three
discs in that the accompaniment is provided
not by the Gewandhausorchester but by
a specialist chamber orchestra, the
Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum.
This group, founded in 1979 by members
of the Gewandhausorchester and playing
on modern instruments, I believe, was
named as a homage to the Collegium Musicum
founded in Leipzig in 1702 by Telemann
and which Bach himself directed from
1729.
BWV 137 is done
well. The rich scoring includes timpani
and a trio of trumpets. I enjoyed the
lively account of the splendid opening
chorus and also the following movement
in which a charming violin obbligato
decorates Otrun Wenkel’s aria, based
on the well-known chorale melody. Later
in the cantata the tenor aria, ‘Lobe
den Herren, der deinen Stand’, brings
another strong contribution from Peter
Schreier. The other cantata on this
disc is the masterly BWV 21,
a large-scale work in no less than eleven
movements. Rotzch unfolds the opening
sinfonia spaciously and then gets responsive
singing from the choir in the chorus
that follows. This is followed by the
concise soprano aria ‘Seufzer, Tränen,
Kummer, Not’, of which Alfred Dürr
writes that it is "of such overwhelming
expressive power that it might be considered
one of the most moving arias that Bach
ever wrote." Fortunately Arleen
Auger is on hand to sing this eloquent
creation with wonderful insight and
she receives marvellous support from
oboist Günter Heidrich. Miss Auger
is also on excellent form in the later
dialogue aria with Theo Adam and the
listener’s pleasure is completed by
Schreier’s fine account of the rejoicing
aria ’Erfreue dich, Seele, erfreue dich,
Herze’, for which his timbre seems ideally
suited. All in all, this is a very satisfying
account of the cantata.
The next disc brings
us the early cantata BWV 106. I
love this piece, which seems to me to
be one of the most intimate in the whole
canon. I’m not sure this performance
fully delivers, however. The wonderfully
luminous sinfonia, with its intertwining
recorders, is taken a touch too slowly,
I think. The choir sing their contribution
well but it sounds to be a bit on the
large side. I had the impression that
in his 1964 recording [review]
Fritz Werner opted for a
reduced choir and his performance worked
rather well. I thought. However, it
sounds as if Rotzch just uses his standard
forces and the sound is just a bit too
heavy, though the choir sings well enough.
Tenor Dieter Weimann has a clear, ringing
voice but he seems to sing too strongly
in his aria. On the other hand I like
Hermann Christian Polster, the bass,
who gives a nicely sprung account of
‘Bestelle dein Haus.’ To be fair there
are more pluses than minuses in the
performance of this cantata.
If BWV 106 is an intimate
work then by contrast BWV 131 is
a very public piece, including, as it
does, timpani and three each of oboes
and trumpets. The richly-scored sinfonia
is jubilantly done and the celebrations
continue in the first chorus. Here the
trebles sound a little pressed on occasions
but overall the movement is convincingly
done. Polster is impressive in his recitativo
and aria. The tenor, making his first
appearance in the set, is Eberhard
Büchner and he employs excellent
clear and forward projection. He enunciates
the words very well in his recitativo
and he also impresses in the aria, ‘Adam
muss in uns verwesen’. There’s a good
contribution too from another series
debutant, soprano Helga Termer. I hear
a slight edge to her tone but nothing
that causes concern and she sings the
aria ‘Letzte Stunde, brich herein’ well.
The CD is completed
by BWV 66. Here, the opening
chorus of rejoicing, illuminated by
a high trumpet, is buoyantly delivered.
The bass aria, ‘Lasset dem Höchsten
ein Danklied erschallen’, is an aria
of gratitude and Siegfried Lorenz does
it well. The cantata also includes a
dialogue recitative and aria between
Hope (tenor) and Fear (alto). Eberhard
Büchner and Heidi Riess combine
well and there’s also an excellent violin
obbligato in their aria.
The tenth and final
disc opens with a splendid cantata,
BWV 172. Its festive opening
chorus, illuminated by three shining
trumpets, is perhaps taken here at a
tempo that’s a fraction too stately
but the singing has refreshing bite.
All three trumpets are also wheeled
out by Bach for the splendid bass aria,
‘Heiligste Dreieinigkeit’ Theo Adam’s
commanding voice is well suited to this
music. Peter Schreier is equally successful
in the heavenly aria ‘O Seelenparadies’
in which the music, in Dürr’s memorable
phrase, "conveys the impression
of release from all earthly gravity."
Schreier is an eloquent advocate, though
some may prefer to hear in this music
a tenor with more of a touch of honey
in his tone. The dialogue aria between
the Soul (soprano) and the Holy Spirit
(alto) finds Arleen Auger soaring rapturously
while Ortrun Wenkel provides a solid
foundation. For once the cantata ends
with a reprise of the opening chorus
and when the music is as thrilling as
is the case in this cantata then I for
one am delighted.
Then Rotzch gives us
BWV 68. He invests the 12/8 rhythms
of the opening chorus with a nice swing
and the horn’s reinforcement of the
soprano line is a shrewd touch on Bach’s
part. This cantata contains one of Bach’s
most celebrated arias, ‘Mein gläubiges
Herze.’ This is a delightful inspiration
and what a joy it is to hear Arleen
Auger sing it so eagerly and radiantly.
Recently, though I enjoyed greatly Sir
John Eliot Gardiner’s performance of
this cantata as part of his Bach Cantata
Pilgrimage, I felt slightly uncomfortable
with the fleet speed he adopted for
this aria.[review]
I have no such reservations about Rotzch’s
pacing, which gives his soloist just
the right amount of space, while allowing
the music to skip with joy Like BWV
172 this cantata also ends with a chorus
rather than a chorale. Here a trio of
trombones provides additional sonority
and the quiet end to the movement is
well managed.
The last item in the
collection is BWV 1. In the opening
movement the inclusion of pairs of horns
and oboi da caccia creates an extra
richness in the scoring. Rotzch springs
the rhythms nicely. There’s another
enchanting aria performance from Arleen
Auger to savour. You can almost see
her smiling as she sings and the oboe
da caccia obbligato contributes well.
Perhaps the tempo could have been just
a touch livelier but it’s still a lovely
performance. We also get one more chance
to enjoy Peter Schreier in the aria
‘Unser Mund und Ton der Saiten’ and
yet again he delivers.
Summing up this collection
is not easy. There are some performances
that strike me as being less successful
than others and often the less successful
ones are the result either of stodgy
tempi or choral singing that is less
than excellent. In this connection,
one thing that the collection does demonstrate
is the extent to which standards of
choral singing improved during the second
half of the twentieth century. As will
have been apparent from my detailed
comments on the individual performances
I don’t find Günther Ramin or Kurt
Thomas to be the most imaginative of
Bach conductors on the evidence of the
recordings here assembled. However,
in the case of Ramin we only have one
work by which to judge him here, albeit
a major one, and it may well be that
other examples of his recorded legacy
in Bach would show him in a much more
favourable light.
What can’t be denied
is the great devotion and commitment
to Bach’s sacred music, and to the religious
ideas that inspired it, that all four
conductors demonstrate consistently.
These are not conductors who think of
these pieces as concert works. Rather
it’s music that was in their very blood
and was an integral part of their daily
work as musicians serving at the Thomaskirche.
These performances, even if one disagrees
with points of detail, exude a natural
conviction. They are part of a living,
breathing tradition.
The solo work is consistently
good, with some soloists - Auger, Giebel
and Schreier in particular - standing
out. As I’ve said the choral singing
is more variable in quality but is consistently
good under Mauersberger and Rotzch.
The obbligato instrumental playing is
uniformly good and often much better
than that.
Inevitably, since the
recordings span a period of nearly thirty
years, the recorded sound is inconsistent,
improving as the recordings become younger,
but it’s never less than satisfactory.
The documentation is a little disappointing.
The full German texts of the cantatas
are provided but there are no translations.
The typefaces are of differing sizes
and some are very difficult to read.
Most seriously, however, the booklet
note, which comes in English and German,
is quite brief and not very satisfactory.
It contains only scant information about
both the Thomanerchor itself and about
the four Cantors whose work is featured.
I would have thought that since an important
raison d’être of
the project seems to be to celebrate
the Bach performance tradition of the
Thomaskirche and some of its recent
Cantors more should have been said,
for once, about the performers, especially
as to many listeners these conductors
will be little more than names. For
those wanting to know more, some biographical
information about all the conductors
featured in this set can be found at
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Thomaskantors.htm
However, despite some
shortcomings this is a most valuable
and interesting set and lovers of Bach’s
sacred music should certainly investigate
it.
John Quinn
BERLIN CLASSICS 0183942BC [10 CDs:
65:20 + 65: 07 + 65:04 + 62:55 + 74:23
+ 73:06 +_ 64: 24 + 54:58 + 77: 37 + 59:58]
