St Matthew Passion

[doversoul1]

I find it almost impossible not to enjoy (‘enjoy’ doesn’t sound quite right) a live performance of this work no matter how it is performed. However, I do like the chorus to be chorus rather than individuals singing together. It maybe because the singers in this performance had particularly distinctive voices, but when you can hear all the characters in the mob, it’s sort of slightly off-putting. All the same, I enjoyed the performance.

[Nick Armstrong]

What a feast, Calibs!
(Take an overcoat or two, tho' - those wicked fen winds...!)

kb

I may have misled the company - I'm not 'doing' the whole week, just StMP last night (see 'Most recent concert' thread).

Hence no blizzard of tweets... but kb it was blooming nippy in Cambridge. Happily a dry cold so the roads around (there was some cross-country driving afterwards) were clear though neighbouring fields somewhat ghostly under a bright moon, covered in snow...

And no autographs, Thropps.... gave up autograph hunting years ago!

The last time I looked at a map, it was north of London. I wasn't referring to the North of England.

Sometimes the pernicketiness on this board is beyond the pale.

I think the 'up' in 'up north' was perhaps ambiguous, Thropples, as 'up north' does have a connotation all its own... But I sympathise with you being taken to task on this: as it indubitably the case that to get to Cambridge from where I live, I was driving almost entirely in a northerly direction!!

[french frank]

Could not be more off-topic (well, it could, I suppose) but just a mention as I can't immediately see a reference:

The Good Friday concert will have a performance of the St Mark Passion (BWV 247). I hesitate to mention it here ...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Good Friday concert will have a performance of the St Mark Passion (BWV 247). I hesitate to mention it here ...

Well worth a listen. I have the Koopman recording - does anyone know if the broadcast is of the same edition?

[Flosshilde]

Let's hope it doesn't provoke the usual discussion about the BBC Singers

[french frank]

Well worth a listen. I have the Koopman recording - does anyone know if the broadcast is of the same edition?

I looked for that on the St George's website too. No mention.

[Hautboiste]

I have a recording of the King's St Matthew Passion. I've never got beyond the first chorus as Stephen Cleobury takes it so fast that it feels as though he's galloping full pelt to Calvary. The recording I listen to is one with Peter Schreier as the Evangelist and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Jesus, done when both were in their heyday. A much more measured performance.

[Sydney Grew]

A really wonderful and totally authentic performance of the Passion may currently be watched and heard at Arte+7 (in two parts):

http://videos.arte.tv/fr/videos/la-passion-selon-saint-matthieu-1-2--7395480.html

http://videos.arte.tv/fr/videos/la-passion-selon-saint-matthieu-2-2--7395484.html

It comes from Leipzig (Leipsic) and might be said to be the "real deal."

[ostuni]

Thanks for posting these: lovely to see the Thomanerchor in action. And intriguing to hear (a portion of) the Gewandhaus orchestra sounding (from the strings, at least) so much like a period band... It's probably the first modern-pitch version I've heard for many years - that extra semitone makes quite a difference for the singers (both Evangelist and Christus - the wonderful Klaus Mertens - sounded a bit pushed at times).

[Roehre]

Well worth a listen. I have the Koopman recording - does anyone know if the broadcast is of the same edition?

I haven't the slightest. The intro hopefully will disclose which reconstruction/edition is used.
Nice change in stead of the ubiquitous St.Matthew or St.John texted passions.

[gurnemanz]

In this month's Oldie Richard Osborne writes about Sviatoslav Richter, who every year at Easter would invite friends round to his flat to listen to Bach Passions on the gramophone. His chosen Matthew was Klemperer with Pears as Evangelist, Fischer-Dieskau, Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig and Gedda. I will confess that I do not know the recording but having read about it, I will probably rectify this fairly soon. I gather that it is rejected by "purists". Osborne comments: "Klemperer had known the work for more than 60 years, which makes his lofty and uncomplicated reading even more a thing of wonder".

[Mary Chambers]

In this month's Oldie Richard Osborne writes about Sviatoslav Richter, who every year at Easter would invite friends round to his flat to listen to Bach Passions on the gramophone. His chosen Matthew was Klemperer with Pears as Evangelist, Fischer-Dieskau, Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig and Gedda. I will confess that I do not know the recording but having read about it, I will probably rectify this fairly soon. I gather that it is rejected by "purists". Osborne comments: "Klemperer had known the work for more than 60 years, which makes his lofty and uncomplicated reading even more a thing of wonder".

It will come as a shock to anyone used to more 'authentic' readings, but it is my favourite too, perhaps because it's the recording I learnt all my cues from when I was learning the chorus parts. I didn't bother mentioning it here because I suspected the more fashion-conscious would pour scorn on it. I don't really think fashion should limit one's appreciation of music.

[Bryn]

It will come as a shock to anyone used to more 'authentic' readings, but it is my favourite too, perhaps because it's the recording I learnt all my cues from when I was learning the chorus parts. I didn't bother mentioning it here because I suspected the more fashion-conscious would pour scorn on it. I don't really think fashion should limit one's appreciation of music.

Recently reissued on the Regis label I see. I wonder which remastering they use?

[Julien Sorel]

I don't really think fashion should limit one's appreciation of music.

I agree. Someone lent me the Klemperer recording when EMI reissued it as a great recording of the century. I'm afraid it did nothing for me - most of the singing sounded a bit odd, the orchestral contribution I found turgid as I did the chorus. (As a parenthesis, what does "lofty and uncomplicated" actually mean?).

It wasn't that it was inauthentic (though I've absolutely no doubt that performances that draw on more recent Bach scholarship are in many ways more authentic rather than 'authentic'). I just found it dull and a bit grotesque. Actually, more than a bit grotesque. Maybe that makes me a trivial, uncomprehending sort of a person but there it is .

Here's some Bach to cheer me up https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=HEbkxYfk0Go (apologies for the probable lack of loftiness).

(An argument could be made that it's become fogeyishly fashionable to admire performances like Klemperer's and denigrate HIPP. As with Mark Berry's blog http://boulezian.blogspot.co.uk/2011...ven-missa.html; http://boulezian.blogspot.co.uk/2012...strauss-7.html).

There will always be a multitude of ways in which this work may be performed, even if we leave aside – with relief – the non-question concerning the instrument. Sir Thomas Beecham's celebrated description made the harpsichord sound more interesting than it is; those of us without antiquarian fetishes welcome the modern piano with open arms and ears. http://boulezian.blogspot.co.uk/2013...ariations.html

Etc.

[BBMmk2]

When St Matthew Passion was last reviewed on R3's BaL, the critic(name escapes me), played an excerpt conducted by RVW, and instead of a harpsichord he used a piano!!