26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dramatic performance of the Passion according to St. John, March 26, 2001
This review is from: Bach: St. John Passion (Audio CD)
What characterizes this performance is drama and tension. There is no need to be concerned with performance practice here. Conrfomity with the edition and time no doubt had its influence. However, the decisions produced a historically smart performance, albeit with modern instruments and a scaled down choir and orchestra for that day. Richter was a hero paving the way for historic performance practice, although he didn't care for period instruments. The result is thrilling. The choral textures are beautifully and skilfully woven, warm when necessary, sinewy and terse when required. The prcision is remarkable. If I remember, from my LP detail, there were 60 in the choir and 45 in the orchestra.
The tenor narative is caringly sung by Enrst Haefliger, one of the best. As a musician and a Christian, I highy recommend this recording. It is a testament of faith.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best "Traditional" St. John Passion Available, March 12, 2008
This review is from: Bach: St. John Passion (Audio CD)
In his day, Karl Richter was considered a Bach "specialist." We accord that title nowadays, if at all, to purveyors of period performance practice--and rightly so. But there's something to be gained by appreciating earlier conceptions of how this music should go. If you favor a more "traditional" approach to Bach's sacred music, featuring a large chorus, modern instruments and "operatic"-style singers, then you can't do better than Richter's 1964 account of the St. John Passion.
There are few Bach performances on record as compelling as this. Richter's direction evinces a profound understanding of how Bach's theological convictions informed his musico-dramatic treatment of the Passion story. He paces the sacred drama to perfection, particularly in the great trial scene that constitutes the central panel of Part II, in which he allows the intensity to build inexorably as the principal "characters" (the turba being one of them) act out their preordained roles, as in a Greek tragedy. I know of no other conductor who highlights Bach's text-painting so insightfully in such sections as the turba "Wir haben keinen König," the chorale "In meinen Herzens Gründen" or the chorus of Roman centurians casting lots for Jesus' robe (to cite just three among many such instances). Richter's most impressive moment, however, comes at the very end of the piece, with his gradually intensifying, then near-apocalyptic account of "Ach, Herr, lass' dein lieb' Engelein." Once heard, never forgotten.
Richter's noble conception of this work would be ineffectual if he didn't have first-rate musicians to work with. But he does. The Munich Bach Choir, as usual, cover themselves in glory. For such a large group their rhythmic articulation and diction are phenomenal, as is their capacity for realizing the contrasting "affects" inscribed in the various chorale settings interspersed throughout the work. The instrumental ensemble responds with extraordinary precision and élan to Richter's often challenging tempos and careful highlighting of textural detail; obbligati are rendered with expressive phrasing and considerable virtuosity. Among the vocal soloists, Haefliger is a rivetingly dramatic narrator and Herman Prey a warmly human (if occasionally stentorian) Christus. If Lear and Töpper are less than idiomatic Bach singers, they project the texts of their arias with passionate conviction, and that counts for more, in the end, than stylistic accuracy. In the Bass arias, Keith Engen sings expressively, if a bit heavily; "Eilt, ihr angefocht'nen Seelen" is particularly eloquent.
This inexpensive double-CD set is superbly remastered, conveying an even more vivid impression than the original LP's (which I still cherish in their beautifully emroidered Archiv Production box). The acoustic, though roomy, is warm and relatively flattering to the voices.
A mandatory acquisition for "traditionalists" and any listener who is curious about the legacy of this outstanding Bach interpreter.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Master, from the Expert, March 23, 2001
This review is from: Bach: St. John Passion (Audio CD)
Karl Richter was known as the pre-eminent Bach interpreter of his time. In this CD, one can see why. The color, depth, and delicate counterpoint of this piece well up from this CD and sweep the listener into the precision and beauty of St. John's Passion.
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