BaL 2.04.11 Bach: St John Passion

[Rupert P Matley]

Suzuki on DVD?

Indeed. Here, for instance:

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/EuroArts/2050396

[gurnemanz]

Cheaper here:

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=480763&affiliate=awin&awinuid=882&affId=78888&WT.mc_id=101915

[Rupert P Matley]

Indeed, I merely posted the first link I found to assure BBM of its existence, but I do think it well worth getting and much better value at HMV as gurnemanz has shown! ;-)

[BBMmk2]

Cheaper here:

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProduct...T.mc_id=101915

Indeed, I merely posted the first link I found to assure BBM of its existence, but I do think it well worth getting and much better value at HMV as gurnemanz has shown! ;-)

The difference in the prices are incredable!! I will have a chat with someone first! :) Looks rather attractive. The Euro Arts label certainly has made rather good dvds!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Britten/Pears for me at present, but my knowledge of the many versions of this work remains too skimpy to make a sensible and constructive overall judgement.

I first heard this work when I was at school (1967 or '68). My A-level teacher was an ex-Leeds University graduate who still had contact with the music students there, so she persuaded us to go to their performance. The soloists included Gerald English. But the most moving thing was the audience participation in the chorales, in which we A-level students rather showed off by singing them in harmony (as the music was provided).

[BBMmk2]

Britten/Pears for me at present, but my knowledge of the many versions of this work remains too skimpy to make a sensible and constructive overall judgement.

I first heard this work when I was at school (1967 or '68). My A-level teacher was an ex-Leeds University graduate who still had contact with the music students there, so she persuaded us to go to their performance. The soloists included Gerald English. But the most moving thing was the audience participation in the chorales, in which we A-level students rather showed off by singing them in harmony (as the music was provided).

It a pity that the college, where I work, hasnt performed those, because they have some really good singers to!

[verismissimo]

The "most recent twelve" only. Hmmm...

[ardcarp]

Simon Heighes chickened out! I did wonder how he was going to cope with the plethora of styles in a single programme, but he probably wisely ended up reviewing only the most recent (eight?) releases, all with period instruments. I was sorry he gave such short shrift to New College Oxford's version, and was particularly dismissive of its soloists...though he was generous to the boy treble. I was sorry he did not play more of the choruses from them as they are the only version using an all-male choir...and SH did spend much time on HIPP. (How many more PhD theses are going to revolve around Bach's only having three men and a dog performing his major choral works?) However I concede that NCO's version is not for everyone and SH came up with a good winner...though I guess many are still going to plump for JEG and The Monteverdi Choir on account of their dramatic impact. For me (I've got NCO already, you'll be surprised to hear) its going to be Andrew Parrot's version. Rogers Covey Crump is surely the least-stressed-by-high-notes tenor of all time?

[Nick Armstrong]

Gardiner is the most perfect performance for me.

I have never been able to warm to JEG's 'big Bach' in his days with Archiv. It entirely lacks a sense of the spiritual, for me, sacrificing that on the cross of rather driven precision and lurid theatricality. And that tenor soloist

I was interested to hear bits of his newer one. I'd like to hear the Pierlot in its entirety too. But this was rather a lightweight BAL. No mention of the Britten version for instance (a wonderful performance, albeit in English).

[pilamenon]

I was sorry he gave such short shrift to New College Oxford's version, and was particularly dismissive of its soloists...though he was generous to the boy treble.

I'll try to listen carefully to this again, as the boy treble sounded distinctly shaky to me in a couple of places.

[Nick Armstrong]

I'll try to listen carefully to this again, as the boy treble sounded distinctly shaky to me in a couple of places.

I'm afraid I agree - the treble's performance in the extract offered, didn't seem to warrant SH going out of his way to praise the singer

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Simon Heighes chickened out! I did wonder how he was going to cope with the plethora of styles in a single programme, but he probably wisely ended up reviewing only the most recent (eight?) releases, all with period instruments.

That's the way it always seems to be now. The musicologists of today have become so brainwashed into believing that it is morally superior to performing music in the way that was forced upon the composers at the time, that anything else (even it it's better) must be dismissed with a supercilious smirk. In today's review, nothing that existed outside this tiny exclusive world was even deemed to exist.

[ardcarp]

I'm afraid I agree - the treble's performance in the extract offered, didn't seem to warrant SH going out of his way to praise the singer

But if you haven't already, try their disc of Monteverdi's Vespres. You nee not make any allowances for the age of the singers on this one.

[VodkaDilc]

This was an ideal BAL for me. I like the one person/scripted format; a two-man chat is too rambling for me and reminds me of the dreadful tendency in TV news, where two journalists interview each other, preferably across thousands of miles. ("I imagine the situation in Libya is developing quickly, Jeremy." "Very much so, Andrew." Aagh!!)

Simon H is an expert on Bach and he obviously put a lot of thought into what he had to say. (Well prepared and delivered - not a conversation.) The extracts were varied and not too long; and I got the impression that the decision to concentrate on recent CDs was his and not an editor's. I am now keen to explore the Pierlot recording; his Bach Magnificat is excellent.

IF anyone from CD Review reads this, please give us more BALs like this one.

[Nick Armstrong]

...the dreadful tendency in TV news, where two journalists interview each other, preferably across thousands of miles. ("I imagine the situation in Libya is developing quickly, Jeremy." "Very much so, Andrew." Aagh!!)

Oh God yes - that's terrible. I suppose I can sort of understand it if one of them is stuck out in a warzone somewhere, the worst is when they are both stuck at opposite ends of the same desk in the studio, and the specialist adopts the position of 'interpreting' events for the presenter and us thickoes at home ... The worst of course (who gets switched off in our house the moment his name is uttered and preferably before he has said a word) is ... Robert Peston

Apologies for tangent!