Customer Reviews

Bach: Weihnachts-Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio)

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

 

 

Even though Christmas Oratorio is about 70% recycled, I really like it. In the process of creating this work, Bach freely borrowed from three previously written cantatas (BWV 213-215), but his genius succeeded in transforming these discrete secular works into an interlinked whole, quite suitable for religious content. Despite the adaptation, the music fits so well that those who didn't know of its genesis would have never guessed. For example, under Bach's magic wand, the same music that had served the allegorical figure Sensuality in BWV 213 became the newborn Christ's lullaby "Schlafe, mein Liebster!" Even though Bach reused many of the arias, he newly composed most of the chorales and recitatives, as well as the Pastoral Symphony which opens Part II. Christmas Oratorio has little in common with other oratorios of the time: it is actually a series of self-contained cantatas, linked together mainly by the Evangelist. The narrative feature makes Christmas Oratorio similar to a "historia" or a "passion." The role of the narrator is very important (although small). I'm not sure Gura is entirely at home in this role, but Jacobs likes him, and I don't much mind. If I could put together my own Christmas Oratorio, I would pick the tenor from the Christophers (Padmore), the alto from here (well, Scholl, obviously), the bass from the Herreweghe (Kooy), and the soprano... hmm... turns out I don't really have a soprano preference. Dorothea Roschmann will do. All in all, this is a very strong release.

This is my favorite of the baroque-instruments versions. The vocal soloists are excellent, especially the tenor with the evangelist parts. The baroque instruments are good to hear; the oboes in particular sound more wonderful than their modern counterparts. The choral singing is superb. Jacobs favors some pretty fast tempos, and the whole work is very lively and Christmassy. Excellent recorded sound.

Rene Jacobs and the excellent Akademie fur Alte Musik, Berlin give us a joyful, very musical Christmas Oratorio. The soloists are remarkable, with the ravishing soprano Dorothea Roschmann, singing the most exquisite "echo" aria in the Fourth Cantata. Countertenor Andreas Scholl is equally good. The sound and presentation are in Harmonia Mundi's usual high standards. This is a much better recording than the also recent Philipp Pickett in DECCA.

There are certain musicians in the Historically-Informed-Performance community who seem to get immediate, self-replicating 5-star ratings in these Amazon reviews. Rene Jacobs is perhaps the most visible example of this phenomenon. Just look at his perverse Mozart-opera recordings and the multitude of international awards they have garnered! This Christmas Oratorio recording is typical. He has learned well from his master, Nikolaus Harnoncourt - but unfortunately his lessons have been gained not from the Harnoncourt of the 70's who gave us those incredible pioneering recordings on Telefunken (Teldec), but rather the Harnoncourt of the last two decades, with perversity piled upon perversity, practically obliterating the moments of genius that survive from those earlier days. Rene Jacobs shone bright as an alto twenty years ago. Just listen to his alto in the Leonhardt recording of the St. Matthew Passion and you will know what truly great Bach singing is all about, despite some small technical imperfections.

As is typical with Jacobs as conductor, his Christmas Oratorio is a highly mannered performance. Tempos are often absurdly slow, and sometimes very fast. But regardless of tempo, his performance is sticky and rarely achieves the freedom that other conductors have brought to their historically-informed recordings. It's quite an achievement for any historically-informed, period-instrument performance to be boring, yet that's what happens with this Jacobs recording, with its abundant artificial pauses and unnecessary attempts at emphasis. I always get the sense when listening to a Jacobs recording that he is saying to us, "Look how good I am at ornamenting and creating unique sound balances." He loves the lute, and in this recording the lute becomes his primary continuo instrument, along with a very heavy bass. You'll have to listen hard to hear the organ, which clearly was Bach's primary continuo instrument in this work. The presence of the lute in this recording is only one of many perversities, on par with the over-busy pianoforte intrusions in his Mozart-opera recordings. I love the sound of the lute, but please don't tell me that this is historically-informed practice.

Naturally, the orchestra is superb and the solo instruments are for the most part very fine. There is some fine choral singing, when Jacobs' perverse tempos and accents don't get in the way. I actually like the chorales in this recording. They are slower than you usually hear in historically-informed recordings, but they are beautiful in the quiet simplicity that Jacobs achieves. But please listen to the opening chorus, with its jumpy accents. It ends up lumbering along rather than dancing with joy, regardless of the fast tempo. The timpani thunder and crash at every opportunity, far beyond what you'll hear in any other historically-informed performance. Even within the community of historically-informed performance practice, the range of what is acceptable and what is not cannot be so wide that something like this should be welcomed as doing justice to the score. By contrast, the sinfonia that opens the second cantata also lumbers along, but at a funereal tempo. Like latter-day Harnoncourt, perversity piles on perversity.

The solo singers are variable, and none surpass their counterparts in other recordings. The most famous of them, Andreas Scholl, sounds emotionally uninvolved in his arias, and these arias really constitute the spiritual heart of this great work. The lullaby in the second cantata is particularly disappointing. Scholl clearly cannot sustain a solid line at Jacobs' slow tempo and the result, for listener and singer, is quite uncomfortable. To hear a truly great singer in the alto music, check out Bernarda Fink in the Gardiner DVD: Bach - Christmas Oratorio / Claron McFadden, Bernarda Fink, Christoph Genz, Dietrich Henschel, John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir

The best recording that I know of this work is the Herreweghe recording on Virgin.Christmas Oratorio (Weihnachtsoratorium)