BaL 7.04.12 - Bach's St Matthew Passion

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

YES: When somebody else has got egg on their face with such comments as "There's so little variety of timbres"!

But surely that's only because someone has hurled an egg at me.

[John Skelton]

For those of us who prefer Bach's intentions (for its intimacy and greater variety of timbres than the homogenous mush of bigger choirs ) there are but three OVpP recordings. Butt's sounded a little too close-mic-ed to me as I listened this morning; so it's going to be either McCreesh or Kuijken for me.

If I may offer my euro's worth - I found McCreesh disappointing, in the main because of the wrong sort of variety of timbre or timbres . There wasn't the sense of an ensemble moving between forms of interrelatedness, antagonism, community, isolation, that ovpp can ... embody so vividly (though obviously some don't hear it like that). Kuijken's recording does it for me (I also know the Butt recording and agree about the close-mic-ing).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But surely that's only because someone has hurled an egg at me.

But you threw it first with the "lack of timbres"! OH, MISS! Alpie started it!

To clarify my position; I didn't mean the "homogenous mush" comment as a general statement - I hope the <devil> emoticon showed that my tongue was so firmly placed in my cheek that my false teeth fell out - and Jaques, Fürtwängler and RVW offer very special insights into the work that could only be achieved with the forces and the "world view" of the work that these exceptional performers had.

I don't (yet) know the McCreesh: the controversy associated with his recording makes it intriguing. Kuijken is a very special Musician whose work I've always found convincing and moving. But I so wish that someone would sponsor a Parrott-led recording. (Stands back to allow "Pretty Polly-phony" jokes to be hurled!)

Best Wishes.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sounds like a disappointing BAL .

Sort-of, Barbi; but only in the sense that 45 mins couldn't do justice to the work - it did seem as if a half-hour had been cut from the middle of the programme, so that it leapt from RVW in 1958 to Rilling in the early '80s: only Richter mentioned "in between" (and with as much attention to his second recording from 1979 as to his first from the '50s). Worth hearing for the excerpts from the versions you don't know.

[Nick Armstrong]

Sort-of, Barbi; but only in the sense that 45 mins couldn't do justice to the work - it did seem as if a half-hour had been cut from the middle of the programme, so that it leapt from RVW in 1958 to Rilling in the early '80s: only Richter mentioned "in between" (and with as much attention to his second recording from 1979 as to his first from the '50s). Worth hearing for the excerpts from the versions you don't know.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

But you threw it first with the "lack of timbres"! OH, MISS! Alpie started it!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

[jayne lee wilson]

EA and fhg... oh, gawd...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

EA and fhg... oh, gawd...

What's wrong with burying the hatchet and making friends? The emoticons are only symbolic.

[BBMmk2]

Indeed!

Anyone heard Rattle's performance at all?

[jayne lee wilson]

Er, GSOH, Kenneth Williams, y'know...

Oh well, I'll stick to - sniff, ahem - m'learned Brahms reviews in future...

What's wrong with burying the hatchet and making friends? The emoticons are only symbolic.

[MickyD]

I've just given the first disc of the 1990 Leonhardt set another listen and was surprised to hear the opening chorus taken at such a slow, plodding pace; I don't like it as much as I once thought.

[ARBurton]

Having now found time to listen to this BAL, I thought it was very interesting but could have done with being somewhat longer. I was surprised by the number of recordings which didn`t feature, but I did enjoy his way of stating an opinion and then defending it by saying "it just is". Nice to see some plain speaking.
An earlier poster referred to the 1953 Scherchen recording, which sent me hunting the internet in search of a copy. Happily I found one - on my own shelf - before I bought another, but that does rather illustrate one of the dangers of collecting, ie forgetting what one already has. And perhaps also it`s a source of serendipity - suddenly happening across a forgotten recording nestling on the shelf next to others - in my case Vaughan Williams live in 1958, Gunther Rmin in 1941, Karajan in 1950, Furtwangler in 1954, Rattle in 2010 (live), Chailly in 1999 (live), a pair of live Herreweghes, Harnoncourt`s millennium set, Jacques in 1948, and Fritz Lehmann`s Berlin set from is it 1949.

[Nick Armstrong]

I did enjoy his way of stating an opinion and then defending it by saying "it just is". Nice to see some plain speaking.

I agree!! Great to hear someone cutting through the "Yeees, but..." brigade!

Your view about the length of this BAL is spot on too, I made a similar point somewhere above. Shame, I'd have MUCH preferred that to the double helping of Verdi they ladled in at the end of the programme