Customer Reviews

Bach: Christmas Oratorio / Otto, Concerto Koln

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Reviewing the last years recordings of the "Weihnachtsoratorium" the interpretation of Ralf Otto is surely the best one. It represents the synthesis of baroque with modern aspects of interpretation. In opposite to the main english recordings (i.e. Gardiner) which impress by a straight but "bodyless" blend it is the Vokalensemble Frankfurt and the splendid soloists (i.e. Ruth Ziesak an Christoph Prégardien) who make the music a sensual experience. Ottos "Weihnachtsoratorium" ist probably the best recording available.

JS Bach is, for many people today, the most revered deity in the musical pantheon, but it wasn't so in his lifetime. His small fame was chiefly as an organist. His position in Leipzig wasn't particularly illustrious, and his income was meager compared to many of his contemporaries. He was thoroughly provincial; there's no record of his ever visiting Vienna or Hamburg, real musical capitals, though he once made it to Berlin ... at his son's invitation. His music was regarded by many as fussy, labored, old-fashioned, inexpressive, and too difficult. His arias were disliked by some singers for being too "instrumental" in character. The most brilliant of his sons, Johann Christian, the London Bach, rejected his father's musical style as totally as his Lutheran religiosity. One of those sons was heard calling him "the Old Wig."

I wouldn't make any friends by suggesting that I agree with Bach's contemporaries' assessment of him. Please! I worship in the Cathedral of Saint Johann Sebastian as often as anyone! Every time I hear a cantata, performed by almost anyone except the dreadful Helmut Rilling, I'm knocked off my feet by the vastness of his music. But ...

... just for the fun of it: This very good recording of the Christmas Oratorio (which is really just a set of cantatas) features the singing of soprano Ruth Ziesak, with the ensemble Concerto Köln, recorded in 1995. The excellent tenor Christoph Pregardien and the omnipresent Klaus Mertens are also included. More recently (2004), Ruth Ziesak recorded five cantatas for soprano from the "Fortsetzung des Harmonischen Gottesdienstes" by Georg Philipp Telemann, a composer who has been treated as Bach's unworthy rival by modern musicologists. The instrumental ensemble on her CD is Camerata Köln, and the recording includes a rarity, four short fugues for organ by Telemann. There's no disputing that the two composers 'spoke' the same musical language. The Telemann CD is beautifully performed in every way, and Ziesak had matured technically. In fact, this is probably the best singing she has ever put forth on CD. You might find it very interesting to compare these two performances; you won't go wrong with either.

This is not, I should hasten to say, my favorite nec plus ultra performance of the Christmas Oratorio. Of those that are readily available, I think the recordings conducted by Rene Jacobs and John Eliot Gardiner are significantly more uplifting.