J.S.Bach - Easter Oratorio, Ascensions Oratorio - Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki

J.S.Bach - Easter Oratorio, Ascensions Oratorio

Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki

J.S.Bach : Easter Oratorio : Final Version (6th April 1749)

Tromba I, II, III, Timpani, Flauto traverso, Flauto DolceI, II,

Oboe I, II, Oboe d'amore, Violino I, II, Viola, Continuo

Soprano, Alto, Tenpre, Basso, Bassono

Text : [3-11] anon.

Ascension Oratorio : (19th May 1735)

Tromba I, II, III, Timpani, Flauto traverso I, II,

Oboe I, II, Violino I, II, Viola, Continuo

Soprano Alto, Tenore (Evagelista), Basso

Bach Collegium Japan Chorus & Orchestra

Masaaki Susuki : Director

Yukari Nonoshita : Soprano

Patrick Van Goethem : Counter-tenor

Jan Kobow : Tenor

Chiyuki Urano : Bass

Liliko Maeda : Flauto Traverso

Masamitsu San'Nomiya : Oboe d'amore

Hidemi Susuki : Violoncello

Naoya Otsuka : Harpsichord

Naoko Imai : Organ

Recorded in May 2004 at the Kobe Shoin Women's University Chapel, Japan

Reviews :

SA-CD.net : Polly Nomial March 26, 2006

Performance - Sonics (S/MC):

This is my first exposure to Suzuki's Bach project and whilst it won't be my last it does make me sad that more of these fine musicians' work has not been captured in surround sound for SACD.

Before discussing the performances themselves, the notes from Klaus Hofmann (who appears to be the musicologist behind the project) are exemplary. They relate the music to the relevant biblical passages as well as discussing the music itself. Masaaki Suzuki also contributes an overview of how he chooses to perform Bach (in terms of texts and textures) which is interesting in its own right.

Quite rightly, the disc has the Easter Oratorio preceding the Ascension Oratorio. The opening instrumental numbers are played with suitable vigour and repose. The text of the opening chorus is very jolly and the whole ensemble gives a very nice lilt to the music which dances in joy at Christ's resurrection. The following recitative for all four soloists displays a more melancholic style (as does the subsequent despairing aria for soprano sung by Yukari Nonoshita with ravishing flute playing from Liliko Maeda) and the soloists all sing with admirable clarity and beauty of tone. The mood then picks up for Jan Kebow's aria about wiping tears of pain from his cheeks. After an aria of self-doubt from Patrick van Goethem (singing as a counter-tenor), there is a suitably upbeat final chorus delivered with enormous stylistic verve.

The Ascension Oratorio then completes the disc with comparable style and grace to the Easter Oratorio. Throughout the orchestral contributions are marvellous and often they are very beautiful (there are no HIP tuning problems as used to be the case all too often in the 1980's) and match the phrasing imparted by the soloists and chorus alike. The chorus itself is a genuine chorus (unlike in Bach: Mass in B minor - Konrad Junghänel) with 4 to a part; this surely has to be an ideal combination with purity of tone and unanimity of ensemble combined with great clarity.

The recording that BIS conjures from the Kobe Shoin Women's University Chapel is very beautiful and well balanced. Whilst the stereo recording is very good, the MCH layer opens up the sound in an entirely natural way. Thus the music, performance and recording are in perfect harmony.

All in all a real joy to the ears and the soul. A most appropriate release in the approach to Easter and one that all of Bach's and Suzuki's admirers should not hesitate to sample, if not buy.

Music Web International : Paul Shoemaker - March 2006:

This BWV 249 is as close to perfect a Bach recording as I've ever heard. The performance is full of life, full of Baroque spirit while being strict to the letter of authentic practice. The horns have just the right amount of grit, the strings just bouncy enough. Balances side to side and front to back are perfect. Balance between instruments, chorus and soloists is perfect. The soloists are exceptional, especially the counter-tenor Patrick van Goethem. Those who think Berlioz invented orchestration should ponder the amazing sound Bach gets with flutes and strings in the accompaniment to "Sanfte soll, Mein Todeskummer...", clearly projecting the mood of a Spring day with the murmur of birdsong and a gentle zephyr rustling the tree leaves.*

Helmut Rilling plays the same music on his disk. Rilling was the first to do what Suzuki is doing now, that is, recording the complete cantatas, but Rilling's soloists are more operatic in style, and some may prefer this. Also, while keeping a strict overall Baroque rhythmic pulse, Rilling makes very subtle adjustments to the tempo of the accompaniment to good dramatic effect. By comparison, Suzuki is perfectly precise and a little cool in style, yet there is no lack of feeling.

I listened to this recording on bud earphones with my portable player, on my computer speakers, and in five channel sound with my big system. Every way the sound of the disk is outstanding. If forced to make a negative comment, I would wonder why there is so little information in the rear channels, just hall ambience, about what a good generic four channel decoder would provide. Why bother with four or five channel recording if all you're going to do is add ambience? Why not use the extra channels to move the listener closer to the performers? I would like to hear this music the way Bach heard it, seated at the harpsichord with the performers forming a 270° panorama around him. Bach never heard his music as on this recording, from 20 meters away in the tenth row of seating. The conductor Suzuki isn't listening to this music that way either, at least not until the playback sessions with the engineers. What is authentic?

In any discussion of this music we must mention the Eugene Ormandy recording with the whole Philadelphia Orchestra and a stellar group of soloists. Ormandy shows us that his understanding of baroque style was second to none and he makes his huge group of players move with dazzling lightness and accuracy to remain within his brisk tempi. The aria "Saget mir geschwinde" with Maureen Forrester and Murray Panitz as flute soloist has never been as beautifully and affectingly sung. Also on this disk, we move from the generally under-rated Eugene Ormandy to the frequently over-rated Leonard Bernstein, but here Bernstein, with the entire New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Schola Cantorum, gives us a performance of Bach's Magnificat fully equal to the highest of his reputation. The energy and commitment of instrumentalists, choristers, and engineers are breathtaking and the musicianship is exemplary, but it is mainly the performance by the amazing Russell Oberlin singing the alto part that is the indispensable, irreplaceable document. Mr. Oberlin, having recorded almost his entire repertoire once (but never Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream, which, fortunately, I saw him sing in Los Angeles), decided he liked teaching more than concertizing and abruptly retired at the peak of his acclaim, leaving the rest of us to labor in search of disks which become more and more rare. We are fortunate that Sony has released this disk on CD in its super bargain "Essential Classics" series, and I urge you, no matter how many recordings of this music you have, to buy it quickly before it disappears.

The venerable Prohaska recording will still be cherished by some as the finest version ever done as well as the very first. The singers are Vienna Opera stars and their German declamation is fluent and overwhelmingly immediate; I think native German speakers will prefer this version above all others in the same way that English speakers cherish the great Bach Guild Purcell recordings of the 1960s. (Purcell sung with a French accent is like single malt Scotch whiskey with ice cubes in it. Never mind that at the first performances some of the singers may have had French accents!)
Hilde Rössl-Majdan yields very little to Maureen Forreser in her urgent and committed performance of "Saget mir, geschwinde..." Prohaska's Viennese lilt to Bach's rhythms, especially the three-quarter time, has about it an undefinable exquisiteness making Suzuki sound mechanical by comparison, but only in comparison. The sweet 1951 recording shows the typical intermodulation distortion ravages of analogue low headroom recording (digital processing should be able to remove that someday!). On this disk the companion is the greatest studio recording ever made of the Cantata #4 (The greatest live performance broadcast I ever heard was with Musica Sacra from New York, but more of that on another day) saying quite a lot for this often recorded work.

So, I've sold you on three recordings of this work which as a collector you must have; but if you buy only one recording, buy the Suzuki.

*While listening to this music it suddenly occurred to me that Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #6 is a tone poem depicting a German tavern. We begin with the murmur of " mostly masculine " conversation, then a small group has a very emotional discussion, then somebody gets up to dance and others join in. See what you think. I don't mean to suggest that the work has to have such a scenario, but I am saying that I don't think it is possible for a poet to avoid such images appearing subliminally in his work. I think Bach has such ideas in mind more than people have been willing to consider. Nobody denies all the religious images, why not non-religious ones as well?

Posted by Ice