Bach : St Matthew Passion

This is a strange recording. When a Bach choral work appears, above all of one of his ultimate masterpieces, one naturally asks nowadays if it is performed ‘authentically,’ using ‘period practices,’ and so on. In this case no definite answer can be given. Riccardo Chailly employs his Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, but in a slimmed-down form.

Our rating

2

Michael Beek

Published: January 20, 2012 at 4:30 pm

COMPOSERS: JS Bach
LABELS: Decca
WORKS: St Matthew Passion
PERFORMER: Christina Landshamer (soprano), Marie-Claude Chappuis (alto), Johannes Chum, Maximilian Schmitt (tenor), Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Thomas Quasthoff, Klaus Häger (bass); Thomanerchor Leipzig; Tölzer Boys’s Choir; Gewandhausorchester/Riccardo Chailly
CATALOGUE NO: 478 2194

This is a strange recording. When a Bach choral work appears, above all of one of his ultimate masterpieces, one naturally asks nowadays if it is performed ‘authentically,’ using ‘period practices,’ and so on. In this case no definite answer can be given. Riccardo Chailly employs his Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, but in a slimmed-down form.

He sets the whole work off at a breathless tempo, enough to ruin the whole work. He turns Bach’s immense chorus of lamentation ‘Come ye daughters, share my grieving’ into a sprightly lilting dance. Klemperer takes more than twice as long over it, but how overwhelming he is!

Much of the rest of the work is conducted better than this, but in no settled style. Some of the arias are taken so deliberately that they sound as if they come from a performance in the 1950s. Some don’t. I felt a pervasive absence of awe.

There is some accomplished solo singing, and the part of Christ is taken with such intensity by Hanno Müller-Brachmann that one wishes it could be put into another account of the work. Thomas Quastoff has a lovely presence, but tends to ponderousness; I find the Evangelist, Johannes Chum, mainly thin-voiced and precious. Rarely has this work left me so unmoved. Michael Tanner

Reviews Editor, BBC Music Magazine

Michael is the Reviews Editor of BBC Music Magazine. He looks after the 26 pages of recording and book reviews in the magazine each month, deciding what will be reviewed – no easy task with so much being sent in for consideration! Michael joined the team in 2018, following ten years as a freelance film music journalist and fifteen years at St George's Bristol. Film and television music is his favourite thing, and when he’s not listening to things to be reviewed in the mag, Michael loves nothing more than to listen to the music of John Williams and James Horner – his favourite film composers. He was the Editor of MusicfromtheMovies.com and has written for the BBC Proms, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall, Hollywood in Vienna and Silva Screen Records. His favourite writing gigs so far have been programmes for each of the Doctor Who Proms, soundtrack album notes for Doctor Who – Series 4 and Torchwood – Children of Earth, plus programmes and features for live concert screenings of Jurassic Park, Gladiator, Back to the Future and Raiders of the Lost Ark. While he never got the chance to interview the late James Horner, Michael was delighted to spend an hour on the phone with John Williams for the 2020 Christmas issue of BBC Music Magazine. Also a presenter, Michael has hosted concerts and live events for Bristol Film Festival and St George's Bristol, plus Debbie Wiseman's ‘Music and Words from Wolf Hall’ shows at venues across the UK. Michael has worked regularly with Debbie Wiseman over the years, writing concert programmes and scripts (for Terry Wogan and Simon Bates) and producing her 2011 album Piano Stories.