Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Motets:
Singet Dem Herrn Ein Neues Lied BWV225 [11.45]
Furchte Dich Nicht, Ich Bin Bei Dir BWV228 [7.27]
Lobet Den Herrn, Alle Heiden BWV230 [6.07]
Jesu, Meine Freude BWV227 [18.23]
Komm, Jesu, Komm BWV229 [7.30]
Der Geist Hilft Unser Schwachheit Auf BWV226 [7.15]
Voces8; The Senesino Players/Barnaby Smith
rec. no details supplied
SIGNUM SIGCD213 [58:31]
I'm not usually one to judge a disc by its cover, but this cover is very interesting.
Signum are clearly hoping to appeal to new audiences with this sort of design.
Presumably the idea is to draw younger listeners into Bach's world, but it
is more likely that they are aiming at the already established, and considerably
more senior, cross-over market. Image is clearly important here; it's not
often you meet an endorsement ad for the choir's tailor on the back of the
liner. And the liner itself is much more in the rock-and-roll tradition than
the classical: it is a single sheet that unfolds to reveal a large, stylised
image of the choir on the back, presumably to stick on your bedroom wall.
The performances are good but are very much what the packaging would lead
you to expect. The singing is crisp and accurate, but the tempos are often
fast and unyielding. The polyphonic movements are sung with a ping to the
accents of each note. It’s not all unaccompanied, but it is all a cappella
in style. Voces8 seem to be a Swingle Singers type of group, and their Bach
is designed to highlight their vocal agility and the precision of their close
harmony textures.
The group is made up of former choristers from Westminster Abbey, so, as you'd
expect, they really know the notes. They are joined by two female sopranos,
who are good but are a mixed blessing. Obviously, boy trebles wouldn't fit
into this kind of sexed-up Bach, but the female voices also stand out. They
occasionally have some tuning problems as well, suggesting they are not quite
up to the standard of their male colleagues.
The choir have instrumental accompaniment, thanks to the Senesino Players;
an orchestra named after a castrato, what are they trying to tell us with
that? But the instrumentalists take a back seat, partly through Bach's refusal
to write them any independent parts, but more significantly through the balance
of the recording, which clearly prioritises the voices.
There are no movement divisions within the motets, and each occupies a single
track. The way the motets are performed is similarly continuous, with very
little pause between each of the movements. That may or may not improve the
coherency of the result, but is less of an issue than the way that even individual
phrases within choruses are run into each other. It is as if the producers
are trying to avoid even the briefest of silences, which often robs the music
of its poise.
It lacks gravitas as well, but this is probably the point where individual
tastes come into play. In their pursuit of new audiences,Voces8 and Signum
seem unconcerned about alienating the existing Bach constituency. That is
fair enough - you can easily go elsewhere if you want to hear a more traditional
reading of this music - but what this one offers is fun. The period performance
movement has demonstrated how to bring life and energy back to Bach's choral
textures, but none of the big names have produced anything that is quite as
much fun as this. Obviously, this isn't the last word when it comes to Bach's
Motets, but it brings an interesting new angle to the music, and possibly
a new audience too.
Gavin Dixon
None of the big names have produced anything that is quite as much fun as
this.