I was very pleased to
receive this CD for review; had I not done so, I should
certainly have bought it at its new very reasonable price.
Regular readers will know that I am a great admirer of
the whole Helios series, with only one minor disappointment
to date, the rather under-powered performance of Vaughan
Williams’s
Tudor Portraits - go for the Hickox version
on Chandos. In the field of baroque music and earlier they
have yet to disappoint and this new CD is no exception.
At times I was tempted to make it
Bargain of the Month but
eventually settled for the lesser accolade for reasons
which I shall explain.
This reissue presents
the rare opportunity to survey the development of Lutheran
church music between Heinrich Schütz, whose music opens
the programme, and J.S. Bach to whom the final piece was
once mistakenly attributed. Not surprisingly, the name
Bach figures
frequently in the roll-call. DG Archiv used to have a recording
of vocal music by the Bach family before J.S.: I’m not
sure if this is still available on CD (4745522), but it
can certainly be obtained online at
classicsandjazz.
Ricercar used to have in their catalogue a series of performances
of German Baroque Cantatas, now mostly deleted, but the
most obvious competitor is another counter-tenor: Andreas
Scholl’s highly regarded
Deutsche Barockkantaten,
also recorded in 1998 – recently reissued on the mid-price
Harmonia Mundi Gold label (HMG50 1651) and available as
an mp3 download from emusic.
There is also a similar
collection on Chandos (
Klaglied – German Sacred
Cantatas: Michael Chance with the Purcell Quartet, CHAN0675 – available
on CD and as downloads from theclassicalshop) which I hope
to explore and review in due course. The Aradia Ensemble
have recorded the Buxtehude
Jubilate (Naxos 8.557041).
Only two items are common
to the Blaze, Scholl and Chance recordings: Johann Christian
Bach’s powerful
Ach daß ich Wassers and Buxtehude’s
Jubilate
Domino. Scholl and Chance are noticeably slower than
Robin Blaze in both works, so I began by investigating
Blaze’s performance of those pieces. I did not find him
at all too fast in the J.C.F. Bach, though even the normally
fast-paced Reinhard Goebel on the Archiv recording takes
a minute and a half longer: Blaze and The Parley of Instruments
capture its mournful - though not morbid - tone excellently
whilst maintaining a steady pace.
Buxtehude’s superb
Jubilate
Domino also lends itself perfectly to the joyful
tempo which Blaze adopts. Matthew White with the Aradia
Ensemble at 9:06 is slower than Scholl (8:42) and considerably
slower than Blaze (7:35). Chance comes midway at 8:07.
JF singled out White’s reflective performance of this
cantata as one of the highlights of the Naxos recording,
which he made
Bargain of the Month – see
review;
I am sure that he is right to appreciate that performance
within its own context, whilst defending Robin Blaze’s
tempo to the death – yet another reminder that the stopwatch
is not always a reliable adjudicator in music if the
performance makes sense within its own parameters, as
is the case here.
Schütz’s
Erbarm dich
mein is a fine work to open the programme – a minor
masterpiece. The orchestral opening of this penitential
appeal for God’s mercy is reminiscent of Dowland’s
Lachrimæ.
Blaze’s insistent singing of the invocatory words of
this paraphrase of Psalm 51, well supported by The Parley
of Instruments, makes a good impression from the start.
Once again, his time for this work is faster than the
rival Chance/Chandos, but again I did not sense that
Blaze was unduly hurried.
Bernhard was Schütz’s
favourite pupil, but
Was betrübst du dich is no
match for his teacher’s work. It is, however, a very expressive
setting of words from Psalm 42, opening in a heavy, almost
funereal style. The mood lightens considerably at the words ‘Wait
upon God’ before returning to the serious mode at the end.
Blaze captures both moods very well and the support which
The Parley offers him is never less than competent.
Rosenmüller’s
Christum
ducem contains echoes of Monteverdi. It is a fine
work, though Peter Holman, in the excellent notes, wonders
what use this Latin text would have been in Lutheran
Leipzig. In fact the Lutheran church was still using
Latin for ‘Sunday best’ as late as J S Bach’s time, as
demonstrated by Ton Koopman’s new series of JSB’s Latin
church music, Volume 1 of which I have recently reviewed
(CC72188 – see
review.)
Rosenmüller’s Sonata II provides one of a number of welcome
instrumental intermissions which break up the run of
counter-tenor singing, though it out-stays its welcome
a little. The two sonatas by Heinrich Bach later in the
programmes are much shorter and less intrusive.
Buxtehude’s
Jesu, meine
Freud und Lust is a cheerful cantata in its composer’s
freshest manner; it receives a performance to match its
sprightly hopefulness. Christian Geist’s
Vater unser,
a setting of the Lord’s Prayer opens in a much more serious
manner; I am not sure why this rather mournful style
was thought appropriate to the words and I was not greatly
taken by it, though the performers do their best. They
only seem fully to come to life, however, when the music
bursts into a brief sunnier mood with the closing words
Von
Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit, for ever and ever.
J.M. Bach’s
Auf, laßt
uns den Herren loben reflects on contemporary wars
in other lands “but we have survived unhurt [through]
God’s protection.” Despite its hopeful words, the music
has a melancholy tinge, well captured in this measured
performance. For once, Blaze is not faster than the competition,
since his time of 6:33 compares with 6:12 on the Archiv
set referred to above.
Krieger’s
O Jesu, du
mein Leben belies the warlike connotations of its
composer’s name – a cheerful piece which receives a lively
and enjoyable performance.
The final work,
Schlage
doch, gewünschte Stunde, ends the recital with music
as fine as the Schütz which began it – little wonder
that it was once attributed to J S Bach.
Finis coronat
opus, the end crowns the work, and the performance
of this cantata is ethereal. The temptation for Charles
Fulbrook to dominate the proceedings with his bells must
have been considerable, but their restrained sound in
the background is just right.
The first time that I
played the CD right through, I found myself suffering from
an over-sufficiency of counter-tenor singing. Repeated
hearings have not proved so satiating – the instrumental
pieces do break up the programme – but I would have preferred
greater variety, as per the recent Ton Koopman CD of Bach
solo cantatas for alto: three items with Bogna Bartosz
as soloist, one with Andreas Scholl’s very different voice,
and one tenor cantata with Christoph Prégardien – Challenge
Classics CC72282 – see
review.
That, together with the few occasions where The Parley
of Instruments did not rise above the competent level in
their accompaniment, led to my decision not to make this
Bargain
of the Month. Yet the wonderful performance of the
closing
Schlage doch made me feel mean to withhold
the higher accolade.
The recording is excellent
throughout – close but by no means too close. The presentation
is in no way inferior to the original full-price issue.
The notes by Peter Holman, the director of The Parley of
Instruments, are excellent. At the new price this is a
real bargain.
Brian Wilson
Robin
Blaze (counter-tenor) 
