Customer Reviews

Bach: St. John Passion / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan, et al

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This is truly the best St John Passion ever heard!! Everything is just right - excellent pace, marvellous soloists, superb orchestra, and authentic yet not stiff interpretation. A must to complete your colleciton of Gardiner, Munchinger, Richter and Ramin!

I just listened to these CDs for the first time today and they completely blew me away. Everything about them is excellent. The soloists are top notch, the Chorus is very good and the music is wonderful. This St. John's grabs you from the first moment you put it on and holds your attention through the last note on CD 2. When I put on the first CD..it seemed that just a couple minutes had passed and yet the CD had played through and I was reaching for the second CD. It never occured to me that I would listen to both CDs start to finish, moving only to change CDs. I was completely engrossed in the performance.

Although I am a fan of Yoshikazu Mera and he was wonderful as usual, I have to say that Gerd Turk's narration impressed me the most. He is the perfect narrator for St. John's Passion.

One other note of interest is that this performance is based on the rarely heard 1749 performance or 4th version which, in itself, makes it a valuable addition to any Bach collection. The fact that it is beautifully performed and in my opinion the finest recording of St. John's Passion in my experience is just 'gravy'.

This is quite simply the best recording of the St. John's Passion to come from anyone in the last 25 years. Suzuki really makes the dramatic narrative come alive in the recording-- it's tremendously exciting music. The tempi move quickly enough that the music doesn't get bogged down in itself, but at the same time Suzuki as a tremendous ear for subtlety. The opening is one of the most chilling experiences in all of Bach.

Great recording by BIS, great performance by Suzuki. Includes arias normally not present in the other editions of the St. Johannes Passion such as "Ach, windet euch nicht so, geplagte Seelen" and "Himmel Reisse, Welte Erbebe" two precious diamonds which beauty would have been sufficient to award Bach as the greatest composer of "at least" his century. Thanks, thanks, thanks, JSB!

Period eadings of Bach can tend toward weirdness, the field evinces so many conflicting theories about "authentic" style. No two recordings of the St. John Passion sound alike, yet as one after another appears, Suzuki's relatively early version stands up very well. It is notably lovely in the instrumental parts (no wiry, buzzy strings, even without vibrato) and the prefect ensemble and intonation of the small choir. The vocal soloists aren't first-rate compared to Gardiner's, but Suzuki doesn't press them beyond their comfort zone. From the Evangelist on down everyone sings in a natural if low-key style. Only the dry, colorless Christus is a disappointment -- we are used to Jesus having the most beautiful and moving voice.

Other reviewers have offered more detail, and the Amazon reviewer's judgments seem totally accurate and jsut, so I won't go on. I can only add another appreciative voice in praise of this intimate, appealing performance, which ranks among the vest on disc.

The internationally acclaimed HIP (Historically Informed Performance) instrumental and choral ensemble Bach Collegium Japan, under music director Masaaki Suzuki, delivers an outstanding performance of the St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. This superb 1998 BIS recording won a Cannes Classical Award in 2000. In his August 18, 2005 article for the highly respected, high brow, German nationwide weekly newspaper Die Zeit, "The Meistersingers from Tokyo: Conductor Masaaki Suzuki and his Japanese Bach Collegium left audiences speechless in a recent tour of Germany," Die Zeit journalist Wolfram Goertz writes, "Masaaki Suzuki was born in Kobe, in 1954. He is the conductor of the Bach Collegium Japan, a hand-picked group of musicians who since the group's formation in 1990 have dedicated themselves so unswervingly and competently to Bach's music that the western world has been left speechless. The jury of Germany's phonographic award, the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, recently honoured Suzuki's team for the 27th sequel of its recordings all of Bach's cantatas. Now the troop is in Franconia to perform Bach's Mass in B Minor. After the concert the audience looked as if they couldn't quite believe what they'd just heard. Some were clearly asking themselves what on earth had happened to the world and its traditions that their beloved Bach could be delivered with such profundity, virtuosity and sincerity by, God forbid, the Japanese."

The "St John Passion" isn't the equal of the "St Matthew Passion," but let's not quibble. It's still amazing, as is this performance. All hail the Bach Collegium Japan and their Bach work. I also recommend their Cantatas cycle; matchless.

After getting acquainted with Suzuki in the cantata's I was excited to explore his St John's Passion and I did so alongside Gardiner's. Except for the opening piece, which Suzuki does beautifully,and the sound, I found Gardiner's version much more compelling. While Suzuki fleshes out the inner voices very well I felt he missed badly on some of the dramatic elements of the piece and some of his vocalists were just not up to the task. I give Suzuki high marks for the contemplative elements of the piece and low marks on sheer drama - which this piece abounds in. Maybe it will just take more time for me but for now I was underwhelmed by this very different interpretation of the Passion.

This is as good as [the] reveiwer mention above so it is a safe choice and should be many peoples first choise too.

For another VERSION (Bach made FOUR versions but only TWO survived complete) I suggest you check out Herreweghes last other version of St John.

By the way there is some nasty things about the Judes in this but the bible is written in that way.

Yes Bach wrote this but followed much of the bible and Bach was probably not an antisemitic person but Martin Luther obviously was that (at least it looks like this). Nothing is found about Bach and a link to some antisemitism so I think you should se this as the biblical story it is but if you be offended by that sort of thing be aware of it but dont let that put you off. If you ARE intrested to understand more about this read the NEW bible book and historical/theological aspects of this matter for futher information (no I am NOT religious but intrested in music and history).

Anyway is this one of the best Bach records ever and it is a lot of Bach records out so I think you understand this is an event and belongs to any distinguished record collection