Bach Christmas Oratorio
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Magazine Review Date: 12/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 152
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: HMC90 1630/1
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Christmas Oratorio |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Andreas Scholl, Alto Berlin Academy for Ancient Music Berlin RIAS Chamber Choir Dorothea Röschmann, Soprano Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Klaus Häger, Bass René Jacobs, Conductor Werner Güra, Tenor |
Author: Nicholas Anderson
Of all the versions of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio that I listened to for my Gramophone “Collection” (see page 28) this is the most recent, and arrived on my doormat just as I was nearing the end of that piece. Jacobs is a Bach interpreter whom I seldom if ever find dull. Everything is carefully thought out and equally carefully put into practice, often with a quite distinctive finesse and turn of phrase. Such is the case, for instance, with the Sinfonia which begins Part 2 of the Oratorio. Phrases here are lovingly shaped, with tenderly and intimately expressive woodwind and string playing. But oh, how slow; I really began to wonder if we were ever going to reach its conclusion. It is almost two-and-a-half minutes longer than John Eliot Gardiner’s reading of the same piece and well over two minutes longer than most others currently available. The chorales, too, are ponderous to my ears though it is refreshing to hear them sung with some sense of consequence. In much the same way as I have sometimes detected in Philippe Herreweghe’s Bach recordings Jacobs introduces an exaggerated degree of self-consciousness, almost amounting to musical narcissism.
Having said that, there is much else in this performance to beguile the senses and gladden the heart. Jacobs has assembled an outstanding cast of soloists of whom, on this occasion at least, Werner Gura impressed me most. He is a singer with an enviably athletic technique and a very acute ear, who deals with demanding passagework, such as that encountered in “Frohe Hirten, eilt, ach eilet” (Part 2), with elegance and panache. By comparison, Andreas Scholl’s “Schlafe, mein Liebster” (Part 2) is a tame and, indeed, slow affair, lacking in the expressive fervour which characterizes his previous recordings; but it is beautifully sung, all the same. Dorothea Roschmann and Klaus Hager are impressive and, in their joyful “Herr, dein Mitleid” (Part 3), are evenly matched and expressively complementary. This is, for me, one of the performance’s high-water marks. The RIAS Chamber Choir and the Berlin Academy for Ancient Music are throughout eagerly responsive to Jacobs’s direction. The orchestra have acquired a marked refinement of corporate sound since their earlier recordings and there are, furthermore, some excellent contributions from the obbligato players, notably the violinist and the oboists. Only in the Sixth and last part of the Oratorio did I encounter occasional rough passages of string playing. As well as harpsichord, organ, cello and bassoon, Jacobs also numbers a prominent lute among his continuo instruments. There is no historical precedent for this but no good reason, either, to banish it on purely musical grounds.
In summary, this is a performance whose virtues easily outnumber its shortcomings. Listeners who prefer a countertenor to a female voice in this range may well be more attracted to it than to Ton Koopman’s recent version. Koopman, though, does perhaps achieve a result that is, in the end, more uniformly satisfying. His chorales are more amiable than those of Jacobs and reflect more engagingly the Christmas Story which inspired the piece. But, for all its minor imperfections, it will be the Tolz Boys’ version directed by Schmidt-Gaden that I shall be listening to over the festive season.'
Having said that, there is much else in this performance to beguile the senses and gladden the heart. Jacobs has assembled an outstanding cast of soloists of whom, on this occasion at least, Werner Gura impressed me most. He is a singer with an enviably athletic technique and a very acute ear, who deals with demanding passagework, such as that encountered in “Frohe Hirten, eilt, ach eilet” (Part 2), with elegance and panache. By comparison, Andreas Scholl’s “Schlafe, mein Liebster” (Part 2) is a tame and, indeed, slow affair, lacking in the expressive fervour which characterizes his previous recordings; but it is beautifully sung, all the same. Dorothea Roschmann and Klaus Hager are impressive and, in their joyful “Herr, dein Mitleid” (Part 3), are evenly matched and expressively complementary. This is, for me, one of the performance’s high-water marks. The RIAS Chamber Choir and the Berlin Academy for Ancient Music are throughout eagerly responsive to Jacobs’s direction. The orchestra have acquired a marked refinement of corporate sound since their earlier recordings and there are, furthermore, some excellent contributions from the obbligato players, notably the violinist and the oboists. Only in the Sixth and last part of the Oratorio did I encounter occasional rough passages of string playing. As well as harpsichord, organ, cello and bassoon, Jacobs also numbers a prominent lute among his continuo instruments. There is no historical precedent for this but no good reason, either, to banish it on purely musical grounds.
In summary, this is a performance whose virtues easily outnumber its shortcomings. Listeners who prefer a countertenor to a female voice in this range may well be more attracted to it than to Ton Koopman’s recent version. Koopman, though, does perhaps achieve a result that is, in the end, more uniformly satisfying. His chorales are more amiable than those of Jacobs and reflect more engagingly the Christmas Story which inspired the piece. But, for all its minor imperfections, it will be the Tolz Boys’ version directed by Schmidt-Gaden that I shall be listening to over the festive season.'
Bach Christmas Oratorio
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