BaL 29.05.21 - Bach, JS: Motets, BWV225-230

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30 Building a Library
Simon Heighes chooses his favourite version of Bach’s Motets.

These technically challenging works contain some of Bach’s very best music and can be thrilling in performance by a top-notch group of singers. (Ouch!) The St. Thomas School in Leipzig where Bach worked kept these pieces in the repertory of its Thomanerchor after the composer’s death. And they performed one of them, Singet dem Herrn for Mozart in 1789. His motets are his only vocal works that stayed in the repertoire without interruption between his death in 1750 and the 19th-century Bach Revival.


Available recordings:-


Bach Sinfonia, Daniel Abraham
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Howard Arman
Stockholm Baroque Ensemble, Swedish Voices Chamber Choir, Bo Aurehl *
Stuttgart Chamber Choir, Frieder Bernius (SACD)
Thomanerchor Leipzig, Capella Thomana, Georg Christoph Biller *
Capella Cracoviensis, Fabio Bonizzoni
Cantus Cölln *
The Sixteen, Harry Christophers
Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne, Michel Corboz
Richard Myron, Jan Freiheit, Tobias Schade, Vocalconsort Berlin, Marcus Creed
Netherlands Chamber Choir, Peter Dijkstra *
Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, Eric Ericson *
I Barocchisti, Coro della Radio Svizzera, Diego Fasolis *
Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
St Jacobs Kammarkör & Rebaroque, Gary Graden
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe *
Chorus sine nomine, Johannes Hiemetsberger
New College Choir Oxford, Edward Higginbottom
Trebles of the Knabenchor in Hanover, London Baroque & Hilliard Ensemble, Paul Hillier & Heinz Hennig
Joanne Lunn, Rebecca Outram, David James, David Gould, Rogers Covey-Crump), Steven Harrold, Gordon Jones Robert Macdonald, The Hilliard Ensemble
Flemish Radio Choir, Bo Holten (SACD)
Sibylla Rubens, Maria Cristina Kiehr, Bernarda Fink, Gerd Türk, Peter Kooy, RIAS-Kammerchor , Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs
Cantus Cölln, Konrad Junghänel
Kammerchor der Augsburger Domsingknaben, Reinhard Kammler
Amarcord, Lautten Compagney, Wolfgang Katschner
Sette Voce, Peter Kooij
Maarten van der Heyden, Jan Kleinbussink, Ageet Zweistra, Margaret Urquhart, Netherlands Chamber Choir, Ton Koopman *
Chor und Orchestra La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken
Le Choeur classique de Montréal, Yves-G Préfontaine, Marthe Lacasse *
Robert Quinney, Sarum Consort, Andrew Mackay
Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, Richard Marlow
Chamber Choir of Europe, European Chamber Soloists, Nicol Matt
Rheinische Kantorei, Hermann Max
Thomanerchor Leipzig, Günther Ramin
Stuttgart Gächinger Kantorei Choir, Stuttgart Bach Collegium Orchestra, Helmuth Rilling
Scholars Baroque Ensemble
Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York, John Scott
Voces8, The Senesino Players, Barnaby Smith
Yukari Nonoshita, Aki Matsui, Damien Guillon, Satoshi Mizukoshi, Dominik Wörner, Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki (SACD)
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, Ivars Taurins *
Thomanerchor Leipzig & Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Kurt Thomas
Trinity Wall Street Choir, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Julian Wachner *

(* = download only)

[vinteuil]

.

... those who have the teldec Bach 2000 boxes will have the Harnoncourt - I think it is also available separately :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00004S4MS

.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000024HY8

.

[Petrushka]

I only have Vocalconsort Berlin/Marcus Creed plus a BBC Music Mag CD with the BBC Singers/Stephen Cleobury.

Well satisfied with the Creed but would be interested in a recommendation that uses instrumental, rather than organ, accompaniment.

[Richard Barrett]

Well satisfied with the Creed but would be interested in a recommendation that uses instrumental, rather than organ, accompaniment.

I haven't heard a better recording than the Kuijken in that regard. Some might complain that there are only eight singers, but I would say that these are the works of Bach that, once heard with such a small vocal ensemble, make the case most strongly for such an approach, not just on historical grounds but also just in terms of beauty and clarity of sound.

[BBMmk2]

I have The Sixteen and Harry Christophers.

[MickyD]

I have the older London Baroque CD with all male voices - haven't listened to it for years, so must dig it out and see what I think now.

[Darloboy]

Hi Alpie, I may be being blind but I can't see the recent Ensemble Pygmalion/Pichon recording in your list. It was one of the Record Review team's top choices of 2020.

Also Gardiner has recorded the motets twice - for Philips & SDG - both are still available, I think.

[Darloboy]

On both of the last two occasions on which these works were covered by BaL (Roderick Swanston in March 93 and George Pratt in June 05) Koopman was first choice. Christophers was Swanston's second/cassette choice. Pratt also recommended Herreweghe, Kuijken and Jacobs, whilst making Junghanel and Gardiner his mid-price recommendations. I'm sure Simon Heighes will do his usual thorough job of covering the recording history to date, despite the constraints of the shortlist format.

[Darloboy]

Also Gardiner has recorded the motets twice - for Philips & SDG - both are still available, I think.

Apologies, Gardiner's 1st recording was on Erato, not Philips.

[ardcarp]

I'm sure Simon Heighes will do his usual thorough job of covering the recording history to date, despite the constraints of the shortlist format.

Let's hope so. If anyone can, SH will if he's given a clear run at it. I must say it's a big ask to survey these motets, so well-loved of singers/choirs. There is no way of doing the 'start at the beginning and work through' which has been a recent (and IMO rubbish) tactic. I hope SH will hop around the motets, comparing examples of how choirs articulate different 'moods', e.g. the openings of Lobet and ditto Jesu meine Freude. As I've said several times in the past, the allotted span for these comparisons is just not long enough, especially if they're including "What are we going to hear next?" padding. As the whole programme is called Record Review, couldn't we have a bit longer to Review the Recordings?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Now this is what a BaL should be like (twoferism apart).
Simon Heighes treats the listeners with respect, without sounding like one of Katie Derham’s Proms interval special guests. Informative and relevant to both scholarship and the wide range of choices in performance styles.

A***

[pastoralguy]

Has Bo Holten had a mention? The ‘phone rang followed by the front door!

[Alison]

Now this is what a BaL should be like (twoferism apart).
Simon Heighes treats the listeners with respect, without sounding like one of Katie Derham’s Proms interval special guests. Informative and relevant to both scholarship and the wide range of choices in performance styles.

A***

Well said Alpie

[Goon525]

Well said Alpie

Agreed.

[gurnemanz]

Now this is what a BaL should be like (twoferism apart).
Simon Heighes treats the listeners with respect,

Agree. But alas it did contain an all too vivid illustration of why people find the twoferism to be inappropriate, irrelevant and irksome: the interlocutor unnecessarily anticipated a point the reviewer was about to make about the actual number of Motets Bach wrote and commented, "You've stolen my thunder". In his position, I would also have been slightly annoyed.