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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Most Original St. Matthew Passion I've Heard, March 17, 2008
It wasn't too long ago that Paul McCreesh released his one-voice-per-part reading of the St. Matthew Passion, an effort that seemed to be either revered or hated by listeners. I will not shy away from saying that I do not feel McCreesh is the best interpreter of Bach. Indeed, while I feel his output in early music is exceptional, his Bach does not always apply, in my opinion. One might find it too light and anemic. The voices he chose did not always blend well. Dramatic moments seemed like mere child's play. These were some of a few annoyances one could find in his St. Matthew Passion. This is unfortunate, as it has turned many listeners off to OVPP, though we know this was type of configuration Bach used and, for the most part, desired for performance (I will not tire you with a long list of evidence of this, but instead refer you to the important, eye-opening book by Andrew Parrott called _The Essential Bach Choir_).
But these problems does not apply all one-voice-per-part (OVPP) renditions. OVPP does not inherently lack drama and depth, but its aim is clarity and precision, without sacrificing drama. And that is evident in the outstanding recordings of Cantus Colln, Andrew Parrott, Scholars Baroque, and others. And we may now add Dunedin to that distinguished list of historical Bach performers as well.
This recording by John Butt and the Dunedin Consort took me completely by surprise. I've read scholarly articles about how Bach would have wanted his St. Matthew Passion to sound, and had realized, prior to Dunedin's release, there was no recording out there, not Gardiner's, not McCreesh's, not even the heavenly Herreweghe's (one of my favorites), that use the forces that were available to Bach. I had realized that there was no recording prior to Dunedin's that comes close to duplicating what this great piece of our cultural heritage would have originally sounded like. Where is the harpsichord in the second orchestra? Were is the full continuo in the "Geduld" aria? et cetera. Call me a purist, but I am so pleased that John Butt has released this recording attempting to duplicate the forces Bach had, and the impressive research that went into making this set is not to be missed.
First thing's first- this recording grabbed my attention from the beginning, and gripped it until the end of the final chorus "Wir setzen uns." One of the benefits of using OVPP is how much the listener begins to identify and "know" the singers far more intimately. Yet in the more explosive moments, there is still very much an element of surprise and grandeur.
The soloists are each well-chosen. In McCreesh's we might see how his chosen voices do not blend well, using too much vibrato, which are both fatal errors in recording Bach OVPP when the main goal of OVPP is the clarity of voices that can still sound as a unit when needed. We know Bach used well-trained boys as sopranos in his choirs, and I was elated to hear Cecilia Osmond's rendition of the arias here. The light sound of her voice seems perfect for the role, and does not hint at any operatic tibre that never seems apropos in the work. This recording TRULY gives the St. Matthew Passion back to the church. But the TRUE standouts of the cast are Nicholas Mulroy's Evangelist and Matthew Brook's Jesus. While I have praised the scholarly aspect of this set, the artistic merit of it is almost unparalleled. Nicholas Mulroy keeps the recitatives flowing with honesty, DRAMA, and urgency. He ranks alonside Ian Bostridge as a great evangelist, in my opinion. Matthew Brook's Jesus, I believe, is the most heartfelt on record, judging from what I have heard (and I have heard many). His arias performed with vigor, and I've never heard such a heart-wrenching "Eli, Eli Lama Asabthani" as his. Mulroy's and Brook's performances are truly unforgettable.
The orchestra plays with a certain amount of suavity and clarity that one misses from McCreesh. The singers even feel free to use some tasteful ornamentation here and there. Case in point is in the da capo section Susan Hamilton's "Ich will dir mein Herze schenken."
One worries, naturally, if the sense of mightiness is lost in this and other OVPP recordings. I've mentioned that I felt McCreesh's ensemble sounded, at times, too light and anemic. There seemed to be no urgency in "Barrabam!", "Lasst ihn! Haltet!," or when the crowd shouts for Jesus to come down from the cross and save himself. But that is definitely NOT the case here with Dunedin. When all eight of the singers required to perform his gem of Western culture are correctly chosen, their ensemble numbers sound every bit as weighty as those of full-scale choirs. "Kommt ihr Toechter" has as much drive, power, and pathos and any recording. The choral interjections of "Lasst ihn! Haltet! Bindet Nicht" are explosive, and when the crowd screams for "Barrabam!" and "Lass sehen, ob Elias koome und ihm helfe!" it is dramatic. The balance between the St. Matthew Passion's inherent reverence and inherent drama is perfectly realized here.
I cannot begin to express how excited I am to have discovered this relatively new ensemble called the Dunedin Consort, and will not hesitate to add them to my list of favorites including Cantus Colln and Collegium Vocale.
Do not let McCreesh's recording deter you from the idea of the St. Matthew Passion being performed OVPP. John Butt and Dunedin have shown how great OVPP in the St. Matthew Passion can sound. But if you happened to like McCreesh's set (I also admit, there were many moments in his pioneering recording that I admire) you will love Dunein Consort's. It is truly the most original rendition, both musicologically and artistically, I have heard so far. One might hope that Cantus Colln or Andrew Parrott offer their readings of it in the near future, but Dunedin Consort's St. Matthew Passion is not to be missed by any classical listener, whether familiar with the OVPP concept or not.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Your Father's Matthauspassion, March 12, 2008
If you are expecting to hear a recording along the lines of Karajan, or Klemperer, or RIlling, or a HIP performance from Gardiner or Herreweghe you might want to look elsewhere. This is a perfomance that like the McCreesh recording on Archiv is One Voice to a Part. EIght singers are the soloists and the Two choruses. Along with a small group of instruments perform one of Bach's mightiest works. With a lot of dedication and much talent, the Dunedin Consort pull the whole thing off! Special mention must be made about Nicholas Mulroy who sings the role of the Evangelist, and Matthew Brook who sings Jesus. Both perfomers as well as the rest of the soloists sing and aquit themselves brilliantly. The only fly in the ointment is the fact that while the singers make a wonderful sound it is still not a big enough one to make me believe I am hearing a big crowd.
The plus though is that the story get told without too much clutter. The recorded sound puts the soli right up front, perhaps a little too much so.
Since the soli perform more than just one role in the passion, I am amazed that they can manage to keep all of the characters from sounding alike. John Butt and the Dunedin Consort may have changed my mind about how I choose to hear Bach's Saint Matthew Passion. As for comments that the title on the SACD book just says "Matthew Passion" and not "St. Matthew Passion" or "Saint Matthew Passion" I think that Linn Records is just using a litteral translation of the German "Matthauspassion" I do not beleive any denigration is intended. Will I stop listening to my copies of the Herreweghe or the Rilling recordings? No but I will be listening to this one too. Just as good as their recoding of Handel's Messiah
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Greatest Baroque Opera of All..., November 23, 2008
... but let's hope no one ever tries to spoil it with costumed staging and hammy acting! It's the musical conception that's essentially operatic. Bach labored long and hard at this Passion, putting unusual care and specificity into the concept, a specificity which has largely been ignored or misunderstood by 20th C interpreters. Conductor/organist John Butt has set out to rectify those misunderstandings with this performance of Bach's final version of 1742.
The issue addressed in this recording is not merely "One Voice Per Part." It's also the question of how the voices interact to generate affect and "meaning' in the Passion texts. There are two choirs of four voices; one choir consists of the four principal soloists, including the Evangelist and Jesus, while the other choir functions both antiphonally and as ripieno (supplement). In fact, there are relatively few antiphonal passages after the massive first Chorus, the most difficult structure of the whole Passion. The many four-part chorales scattered through the Passion are all sung by both choirs, thus two-on-a-part. As John Butt explains in his notes, the effect of hearing just the soloists in choir sometimes, then the supplemented double choir entering, has both musical and emotional impact, which is lost when all the choruses are sung by a large choir massed behind the soloists. Also, having the principals - Jesus and the Evangelist - sing in their choir has a meaningful 'dramatic' purpose; Jesus is not merely the 'role' of Jesus but also one of humanity, at times even one of His own accusers. [But... if you read the roster of performers on page 53 of the notes, you'll be able to catch John Butt in a bit of a shenanigan; a number of extra voices, outside the two four-singer choirs, are used to sing the roles of Peter, Judas, Pilate, and the High Priests. I find the 'sin' against pure authenticity forgivable in terms of the differentiation of roles on this recorded performance.]
Butt has also assembled precisely the instrumental forces, in two orchestras, that he finds indicated in Bach's 1742 manuscripts. One orchestra includes an organ in continuo, but the other uses a harpsichord. The instrumental performance by the Dunedin Players is extremely competent and eloquent throughout. Likewise the four solo singers, especially Evangelist Nicholas Mulroy, deliver the musical eloquence to actualize Butt's -- and by implication, Bach's -- sublime musical concept.
As another reviewer has stated, this is not your grandfather's Matthew Passion, or your local Lutheran Church choir's Passion, either. You'll hear the biggest difference immediately in the first section, the antiphonal invocation to participate in the theological event of the Passion, in which the two choirs NEED acoustic separation. You'll need separation also, a sound system with clear stereo separation. If your system has a center speaker, I'd suggest minimizing it or even turning it off. You could also listen through headphones, at least once.
But let's not forget that it's all about music, not scholarship. This is a superbly played and sung performance. There are other recordings with equally fine soloists. There is the Paul McCreesh recording, on which the choral singing is quite artful though the soloists seem to have different instincts. But this is, as they say at baseball games, "the whole package." The best Matthew Passion ever yet offered on CDs!
I might not have encountered this performance if it were not for a couple of my "amazon friends" who called my attention to it. I wasn't 'in the market' for a Passion. This, I believe, is how the amazon friendship network was designed to function, and it functioned wonderfully. I regret that amazon appears to have jettisoned the network idea with its new rating system.
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