Customer Reviews

Mass in B Minor

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

 

 

Jochum is the best "spiritual" conductor i know. This Bach's Mass is no exception: the fluid and ethereal sonority of the music as well as the strenght of the choir makes this Mass version one of the best.

I could blather on like I usually do about the glorious playing of the Dresden forces and Jochum's terrific, inspired performance. But I won't! I love this recording, warts and all. The overall emotional thrust is terrific, and even if the tempi are slower than the period crowd would vote for, they are never lugubriously heavy. An enjoyable performance that my partner and I have enjoyed many times.

And it's a bargain!

To me, the most important is and remain the spirit of the interpretation, so usually I can easily forgive some technical flaws in performance and recording/mixing, provided the spirit of the music appeals to my imagination. Still I find this Jochum-recording slightly disappointing. Perhaps the reason is that I am used to his Christmas oratorio (Weihnachts-oratorium) from 1973, both intimate and glorious, perfect on all levels, but sadly out of print... This is not out of print - september 2005 - if you search B0007RO57K on Amazon you find the reissue. I have to agree with the other reviewers that this b-minor mass - it is from 1982, not from the 50ies - suffers from some weak singers and a dubious sound quality; it is something foggy about it. Jochum's forces are too big here - unlike the Christmas oratorio - but despite these drawbacks, we still have Jochum's baton, his wand! There is an incomparable dignity to the phrasing and pacing; this is a solemn performance and it grows in my mind by repeated listening. I also like Herreweghe's very different interpretation - Amazon-search B000005Z2W - which in fact has all the clarity, all the transparency I miss by Jochum's 1982-recording. I need them both.

P.S. July 2006: Yes, I did need both, because I had not found Rilling's b-minor mass yet. That one leaves no wishes open and gets the final fifth star, Amazon search: B00004S584.

Eugen Jochum here finds a way to take the music at a slow pace to give it the solemnity that a sacred work of this magnitude demands, yet still capture the varying moods of the piece. The powerful, heavily fugal "Gloria in excelsis Deo" slides easily into the (appropriately) gentle "Et in terra pax." Even more wonderful is the way Jochum builds up the chorales to spectacular climaxes, most notably in the "Gratias agimus tibi" and the aforementioned "Et in terra pax."

In this endeavor, he is aided by the chorus, which functions as a team, as a single unit, rather than as sections of sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses pitted against one another in a chaotic survival of the fittest (or loudest). This approach can sometimes tend to obscure the words and blur the textures, but for the sake of drama, a singularity of purpose is absolutely essential.

The weakness of the recording is undoubtedly the soloists. No one would argue that this is Helen Donath's best recording, and Brigitte Fassbaender struggles to restrain her dark, powerful, Mahlerian voice. She and Donath seem to cancel each other out in their two duets. Robert Holl's bass tends to be stuck way down in the basement, and his singing is rather uninspired at times.

The solo movements are saved, however, by some wonderful solo instrumental playing, most notably that by the solo violin in the "Laudamus te." The ultimate saving grace for this recording, however, is the wonderful direction of Jochum, who keeps the music serious, but interesting.

This is a dedicated reading, but not quite a spiritual experience when comparing it to Richter or Klemperer for instance.

The major dissapointment is that in this remastered recording you can hear much of the digital signal...which is known as "digititis" among audiophiles. I think that the recording producers could have had much more success also if they changed their "dry" recording into a side-ranging one.

As much as I love Jochum, I just can't love the recording of this one. :(

Since I like the solemn, slow tempos of the older recordings of this work, this recording is made for order for my taste. But the sound is not too great. There were times when the chorus seemed to have lost their microphones. The tenors in the chorus are often impossible to hear. Also, the trumpets can get a bit shrill in their trill passages, but I've noticed that in lots of other Mass albums (except the first Helmut Rilling album). This is a live 1957 performance: a real historical find, and no audience noise. Budget price, too.