Recensies

Recensie Cd Bachmotetten: “one of, if not the, best”

02.12.2008

To this day we still don’t know all of the information about the original settings of the Bach motets or whether they are all by Bach (BWV 230). It is very unlikely that the pieces were intended to be performed as a group, let alone in any particular order, not an uncommon situation regarding many of Bach’s (and other’s) works. There is also substantial argument about how exactly they are to be performed, with or without continuo and/or instrumental doublings, plus the usual one-to-a-part nonsense (as if the needed “clarity” so sought after cannot be achieved in a fuller choral group). My favorite version to this date is the one on Harmonia Mundi by Philippe Herreweghe, who uses the instrumental complement, though there are others that are very fine. James Reel likes the Sigiswald Kuijken reading (his second, on Challenge), also minted on SACD (Fanfare 30:5), though it buys into the Rifkin doctrine, as goes the recent Hilliard Ensemble recording on ECM, one-to-a-part and without any instruments, tepidly accepted though hardly recommended by George Chien (31:2). Peter Dijkstra has chosen a middle road as far as the instruments are concerned, epousing a continuo-only approach, and is quite stringent in his arguments in the notes that protest against playing these works from a predominantly instrumental standpoint, often meaning played too fast. Fortunately he uses a nicely refined 16-member choral outfit that provides all the clarity Bach could ever ask for.
Hearing these gorgeous, silken readings in spectacularly balanced surround DSD, one cannot but be impressed by the superb phrasing and cultured beauty of the singing line gently and unobtrusively supported by the supple continuo. Herreweghe’s, already a model of smoothness, falls easily into second place in that department when compared to this one.
Channel Classics is one of the finest producers of Super Audio in the business, and this disc only confirmes that. These performances might even prove objectionable to some who have come to expect a little more bite in their Bach, but the milkshake-luxuriousness of this recording plays exceptionally well on these worn ears, and a most enjoyable experience it is. One of, if not the, best.