Johann Sebastian Bach: Matthäus-Passion (The Passion of St. Matthew) BWV 244. Nikolaus Harnoncourt 2001 Teldec CD

Composed for the Easter celebration of 1727 (traditionally performed at vesper on Good Friday), the Passion of St. Matthew is a monumental work. It is more than 2½ hrs worth of music that relates the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and his burial... ending in the expectant faith of his resurrection. The passion is divided into two main sections. The first (CD1) covers the last supper to Jesus’s arrest. The second part (CD2 & 3) covers the trial, his tortuous trip to the cross, and his burial. A spiritual trip for both the performers and the audience alike!

The fascinating mass is set to the Matthew 26-27 based text of Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander). Its awe-inspiring structural symmetry features double-chorus positioned at opposite ends of the auditorium, standing in for the daughter of Zion and the faithful, with big choral numbers to start, join the two main sections in the middle, and close the piece... and being quite interactive with the principal characters, portrayed by the vocal soloists. The lead tenor, as The Evangelist, is the principal narrator of the story who recites and sings from the Gospel text. The lead bass, as Jesus, is separated from the others in always being accompanied by the orchestral strings instead of only by the continuo during the recitative.... with the exception of the last sentence he utters on the cross (‘Eli, eli, lama asabthani’) (by the way, it wasn’t so weird back in Bach’s day for the good guys to have lower/heavier voice than the bad guys do. In this show, the heaviest, darkest bass voice is that of Jesus).

CAST:
Christoph Prégardien (tenor - The Evangelist), Matthias Goerne (bass - Jesus), Christine Schäfer (soprano 1 - Ancilla/Maid 1, Uxor Pilati/Pilate’s Wife), Dorothea Räschmann (soprano 2), Bernarda Fink (contralto 1), Elisabeth von Magnus (contralto 2 - Ancilla/Maid 2, Testis/Witness 1), Michael Schade (tenor 1), Markus Schäfer (tenor 2 - Testis/Witness 2), Dietrich Henschel (bass 1 -Judas, Peter, Pontifex 1, Pilate), Oliver Widmer (bass 2), Jan Leibnitz (bass - Pontifex 2)
Nikolaus Harnoncourt/ Concentus Musicus Wien
Erwin Ortner/Arnold Schoenberg Choir & Norbert Balatsch/ Vienna Boys’ Choir

Samples:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JxMzuyMwgU (some solo bits)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnRg2w_776s (final chorus - Wir setzen uns mit Tränen wieder (We Sit Down And Weep))

”Present-day musicians and audiences have grown up musically with Beethoven, Brahms and Stravinsky; they so play and hear the works of Bach with quite different ears than the musicians and listeners who were Bach’s contemporaries, familiar only with Buxtehude, Kuhnau and Reinken. We wish to arrive at a 20th Century interpretation based on the resources of the 18th Century. As musicians, we would never play on authentic historical instruments of the 18th Century if they provided no advantage beyond their authenticity. In reality, however, they offer us the richest tonal and technical stimulation, which constantly influences our interpretation. This is the only and the real reason why we are so insistent on performing on original instruments. It is the free decision of the performer to perform a work in optimal fashion, not simply the antiquarian’s dream of recapturing the sounds of a bygone age. “
— Nikolaus Harnoncourt, The Musical Dialogue

Not simply the antiquarian's dream of recapturing the sounds of a bygone age indeed this CD set proves to be. It is Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s 3rd recording of J.S. Bach’s celebrated Passion of St. Matthew. And, unlike his first recording from 1970, this one uses grown up females singing solo parts rather than boy trebles. The singing cast is nothing short of spectacular; all devoting their attention to actually portraying the character(s) in the passion play that they are designated as.

Christophe Prégardien’s Evangelist is the emotional heart of the show and proves himself a most convincing and sympathetic story teller (or should I say story-singer?). He is well matched by Matthias Goerne’s warm and fittingly passionate Jesus, who breaks your heart with his last line from the cross. The versatile Dietrich Henschel is even more impressive in his ability to portray 4 different roles distinctly and convincingly with his voice. His rendition of ‘Komm, süßes Kreuz’ and ‘Mache dich, mein Herze, rein’ are some of the things on this CD set that will really stick in your head for a long time afterward. The man nearly gives me a religious experience.... and I don’t even believe in a religious god!

On the female side, the most remarkable is the delightfully expressive Argentinian mezzo, Bernarda Fink, sure of voice and marvelously flesh and blood. Christine Schäfer is sterling voiced and solid, though rather cold in her three parts... which is a stark contrast to the really drama-oriented Dorothea Röschmann, who might have over-emoted a few passages but has a mesmerizing warm voice and an engaging presence.

The Arnold Schoenberg Chor and the Vienna Boys’ Choir are nothing short of wonderful. Wherever Maestro Nikolaus Harnoncourt directs, the wonderfully sensitive Concentus Musicus Wien goes. And they go to places that other recordings of this Passion hadn’t glimpsed at before. At times it is as if they are a ‘singing voice’ of their own, coaxing and admonishing the solo characters in the course of this supernaturally elongated event of the Passion. They use period instruments, and there are a few here that I’m not familiar with (i.e. the viola da gamba and its double bass violone). There are many recordings of this music (a treat for us, considering how labor intensive this work is to perform), and it is wonderful to have a set that has a distinctly different perspective from the others.

Some Bach lovers will find Harnoncourt's reading too forceful and the tempo variations too extreme... at first.. But you can’t make up your mind about this CD after just one or two listening sessions. What you might dismiss as ‘rushed’ or ‘forceful’ at first, actually are well reasoned reflection of what Harnoncourt considers as happening at that point in the story. The tension of the story is sustained through out even at very brisk tempo. It is a very fresh performance that stands repeated listening extremely well because when Harnoncourt veers from the ‘tradition’, he doesn’t do it just to be different, but to say something new about it... to state the same melodic phrase in his own voice. This performance isn’t a mere imitation of what came before, but a new metamorphosis of Bach’s vision... brought to live by Harnoncourt’s own touch. Originality isn’t a lost quality in the world of classical music after all!

The sound is excellent and the performance nothing short of top-notch. It is distinctly different from his earlier recording with the boy soloists and from all the other available recordings of this Passion. Packaging is space-saving and hardy. The three CDs are allotted their own pocket inside the beautiful hardback little booklet that contains a scholarly note on the composition, lots of relevant color illustrations, and full libretto in English, German, and French. It is a bit hard getting the CDs out (especially for CD3) since the fit is so tight.

The one bit of downside.... though the tracks of the first two CDs flow from start to finish, those on the third disc are separated by two seconds worth of pause... which has a rather disruptive effect on the listening experience. I suspect this has to do with this particular disc being an enhanced CD-ROM containing the full autographed score which requires QuickTime 4.0 (included on CD) installation or MacOS 8.0 or later to open. Having been greeted with a caution screen that raises the possibility of damage to my other installed software, I have not tried to access the score from this CD, however.

I won't say that this is the only CD set of Bach's Great Passion to have, though if I am to be marooned on a deserted island, I'd like to have this set and the Klemperer recording on EMI label.

3 CD. Run-time: min. Sung in German. Packaging includes: Full note on Bach’s composition of Matthäus-Passion and libretto in German and English. Full score available on the 3rd CD.

Smorg is grateful to our music CL, lambchops, for her speedy addition of this CD set to the Epinions database.

My other review of JS Bach:
Bach Cantatas 82 & 199 (L Hunt-Lieberson)

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening