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Bach: Matthäuspassion - Kuijken

Bach: Matthäuspassion - Kuijken

Challenge Classics  CC 72357 (3 discs)

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Vocal


Bach: Matthäus-Passion BWV 244

La Petite Bande
Sigiswald Kuijken (conductor)


Magnificent and transparent, a recording of the famous masterpiece by J.S. Bach by La Petite Bande and Sigiswald Kuijken. The ensemble has a worldwide reputation of aiming for the most authentic sound possible. Again Kuijken and his group of musicians and vocalists have achieved this the most sublime way!

Sigiswald Kuijken knows the St. Matthew Passion through and through. With La Petite Bande he gave performances of the work all over the world. Twenty years ago La Petite Bande (at that time with conductor Gustav Leonhardt and Kuijken as concertmaster) made their first recording of the Passion. It was a recording with soloists, a chamber choir and an orchestral composition which was adjusted to that. Since then Kuijken's vision on this masterpiece has changed very much. Ground-breaking musicological work of the last decades has brought him to a serious thin-out of his ensemble without the use of a conductor. There is not a real choir anymore, because the soloists perform also the choirparts. The boys choir that is usually used in most performances of this Passion is replaced here by a single soprano voice!

Additionally, by using authentic instruments and the original way of playing them, both in interpretation and sound quality, La Petite Bande strives to revive baroque music as faithfully as possible without lapsing into rigid academics.

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DSD recording

Recorded 5-9 April 2009 at the Predikherenkerk, Leiven (B), DSD 64fs

Recorded by Northstar Recording Services

Recording assistant: Fir Suidema

Executive producer: Anne de Jong

Artist & Repertoire (Challenge Records International): Wolfgang Reihing

Recording producer, mix and mastering: Bert van der Wolf

Recording equipment: Sonodore microphones; DCS digital converters & Siltech cables

Recording software: Merging Technologies Pyramix
Reviews (1)
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Review by John Miller - May 28, 2010

Thanks to the scholarship of musicians such as Joshua Rifkin and Andrew Parrot, the idea of "barefoot" performances of Bach's choral works with singers one to a part is still gaining ascension. Examination of the records of the Thomasschule in the time of Bach show that he struggled to have eight good singers out of his 70 or so pupils for music to be sung in the four Leipzig Churches. There is no evidence at all indicating that the full complement of boys ever sung as a unit, contrary to the assumption of Mendelssohn in his nineteenth century Bach restorations. The Passions, particularly the St Matthew, thus became known to me and other listeners in magisterial recordings of such as Klemperer and Karajan with large modern symphony orchestras and augmented choruses. How much the musical landscape of Bach and other Baroque composers has changed since those days!

Sigiswald Kuijken's own ground-breaking research on the part-books of the Matthew Passion from Bach's time supports his present minimalist views. Eight autograph part-books for the 'due cori' show that each singer has some arias to sing, as well as all their choral sections. The Evangelist (tenor) and the Jesus (bass) part, for example, are given to the tenor and bass of Choir I, and they also have to participate in everything else, including the chorales. One extra soprano 'in ripieno' sings the Chorale in the opening and final choruses in Part 1 (instead of the familiar boy's choir). Kuijken comments that amongst the benefits of the one-to-a-part performance is that a conductor is no longer needed, so that the concertmaster and continuo can jointly direct. All the musicians thus feel wholly involved, and the director need not be distracted by the mechanics of keeping tight ensemble in a large body of performers. Apart from the general benefit of hearing Bach's virtuoso polyphonic part-writing with amazing clarity, the chorales sung by one or both choirs demonstrate their harmonic structures with a madrigalian inflection. The version used here is Bach's final one, compiled after a number of revisions to a work he clearly treasured.

Arriving at the recording venue of Predikherenkerk in Leuven, Belgium on 5th April 2009, Kuijken and Northstar's recording team found that the town was effectively a noisy building site, and that recording would only be possible at night. They decided that they would capture a full "live" performance on the first night, using the daytimes for playback and planning re-takes, which took place on the remaining three nights. It was unusually agreed that all the singers and La Petite Band would all be present for the whole four nights (usually in sessions, only required performers need be present). This total involvement of the performers resulted in an enormous co-operative effort, creating a very special atmosphere which comes across very well in the final result.

The Leuven church provides a lovely choral sound, enhanced by its warm acoustic, imbuing an atmospheric radiance yet preserving clarity of line and openness of texture. The ambience also manages to fill out the tonal qualities both of instruments and voices, suggesting, paradoxically, that there are more performers than in reality. La Petite Band, forming the two orchestras disposed left and right, are simply excellent in their support of the singers. Their solos on violin, period oboes, oboes da caccia and d'amore (especially the latter) are simply gorgeous, and Sigiswald Kuijken's own on the gamba are alternately dramatically galvanising and heart-aching.

Bach's part-book prescription of two continuo organs is adhered to, in contrast to Butt's recent similar performance (Bach: Matthäuspassion - Butt), where a harpsichord is substituted for one of the organs (as the second organ was under repair in St Thomas church at one of Bach's performances). Tempi are by no means extreme but reflect Bach's many dance forms, with subtle rhythmic impulsion. The opening chorus, for example, is electrifying, with harmonic tensions, deft cadences and a clearly-expressed layering effect. The dialogue between the two choirs is deeply personal, as is the appearance of the solo soprano in the chorale. The singer's voices are not treated as stars, and their humble, self-effacing style is purely in the service of the narrative, drawing the listener in.

All of Kuijken's singers are experienced in Baroque performance practices, and like Butt's vocalists, the team has no weak links. The named roles are executed with fine artistry and dramatic insight. As Evangelist, tenor Christoph Genz is authoritative and keeps the narrative on the move, so that interactions between the characters progress in a very natural way. Bass Jan Van der Crabben is an ideally noble but non-rhetorical Jesus, and mezzo Petra Noskaiová sings 'Erbarme dich' and her several alto solos in Part 3 with touching generosity and tenderness. The intense experience of singing and hearing this work in four nights of recording seems not to have had adverse effects on the cast's vocal qualities. There is energy, rhythmic verve and lilt, vocal colour, awareness of texts and their symbolism lying behind almost every word. Ornaments other than those indicated by Bach are applied mostly sparingly, particularly in the ritornello sections of aria, and are generally tastefully unobtrusive.

I have no doubt that this St Matthew is at least the equal of Butt's acclaimed one-to-a-part version. It is difficult to choose between their overall approaches. If pressed, I would say that Butt's view focusses on the Passion drama itself, in a somewhat more robust way than Kuijken, and this matches his somewhat drier, very immediate recording with its notably heavier bass continuo. Kuijken and his performers capture the lyrical beauty of the story-telling, in the context of simple Lutheran belief in life after death and thereafter personal closeness to Jesus. Kuijken's Matthew Passion is thus fundamentally optimistic, as demonstrated in the breath-taking spirituality and balm of its chorales. The final chorus sums this up, dually reflecting sorrow for the suffering of Jesus tempered by joy at the certainty of Heavenly bliss for a true believer. To have both recordings is to have great riches.

With a fittingly unobtrusive yet revelatory recording quality in full DSD, Challenge Classics have given us a recording of Bach's St Matthew Passion to set among the best in any format and performance configuration. The presentation is up to the company's usual high standards. Three discs come in thin card sleeves in a neat box, accompanied by a glossy booklet with illuminating notes in the form of a Q & A session with Kuijken. Full texts in German, English and French, accompanied with notes on La Petite Band and the soloists.

Copyright © 2010 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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