Exceptional soloists and the internationally acclaimed Gewandhaus Orchestra have joined forces for this recording of the St John Passion. The musical setting is closely modeled on the biblical text and the artists follow Bach's original conception. The unique charisma, clarity, and precision of Georg Christoph Biller are unmistakable on this disc.
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5.97 x 0.82 x 5.16 inches; 7.84 ounces
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La Chapelle Rhenane, the Strasbourg-based virtuoso group of vocal and instrumental musicians under the direction of Benoit Haller, gives us here an intensely dramatic, vividly contemporary, thoroughly musical, chamber version of Bach's Passion According to St. John. This is not a one-voice-to-a-part performance, but rather all vocal and instrumental forces have been reduced to a minimum so that the drama of the text can be intimately yet forcefully projected and the lines of instrumental music clearly inflected and differentiated. By no means is this an austere performance. Rather Haller's musicians force you to pay attention. The pieces in which soloists and chorus interact acquire dramatic immediacy with these reduced forces while maintaining individual differentiation between the lines of say, turba and soloist. Among the soloist it is noteworthy that the Evangelist is marvelously sung by tenor Julien Pregardien, son of the famous tenor, himself a great Evangelist, Christoph Pregardien. All soloists and the reduced choral forces are indeed vocal virtuosos. Some measures are taken at speeds much faster than I have ever heard in a St. John Passion, yet at no time is a note slurred, a line smudged: everything is always clear. The same can be said for the instrumentalists.
A more traditional approach to the St. John Passion, which, like La Chapelle Rhenane's version, attempts to solve some of the textual differences given Bach's various versions of the work, can best be found in Phillipe Herreweghe's extraordinary versionBach: St. John Passion. However, the different, more bracing view of the work given here by Benoit Haller deserves a place on the shelf next to Herreweghe's. It is Bach's genius that there is no one way to his music. As John Eliott Gardiner is showing us in his cantata pilgrimage, Herreweghe in his St. John's, and here Mr. Haller so ably demonstrates, there is endless variety of perspective with which to view the Bach ouvre. Haller gives us a version that seems very right for our time, suffused with human feeling and passion, projecting text in a manner far removed from the pietistic garb that elsewhere can smother it. When it comes to Bach, we are past any orthodoxy.
The recording is clear, natural and wide ranging. The notes are interesting even if the print is small. Text is provided. Highly recommended. Even as a first St. John's.
Half a century later, and the second World War seems to have taught us nothing of the value of human dignity, the world still wracked by wars wrought in the name of race and religion and greed.
Catastrophes are now commonplace, regular spectacles splashed on TV screens and newspapers. Earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, all in the space of a handful of months.
All art has to answer this one question: how do we live? How do we go on in these times?
Benoît Haller's response isn't one of consolation. He exposes the rawness of human agony plainly: listen to the way the continuo grunts and tears into the opening chorus. His response is apocalyptic; through Bach he makes us stare into the pits of our own hopelessness.
All his singers and instrumentalists seem to be in the same sinking boat. They strain and struggle because they sing about life and death.
What makes this recording so special is the way in which the story is told. I know of no other recording that is so dramatic. The performers have obviously emerged themselves in every word of the evangelist's text and really bring it life. The very first chords of the opening give one an immediate sense of the terrifying drama which is to follow. It is the recitatives which are the strength of this recording. I have never heard the story told with such dramatic vividness. One detail whicu struck me is the way in which the recitatives start immediately after the last note of the chorales and arias and lead right into the next piece. The result is that one experiences the events leading up to the cruxifiction in one "theatrical" sequence. Added to this the Evangelist is one of the best I have heard. I presume that he is Chritoph Pregardien's son - wonderful young voice and superb diction. There is nothing here of the measured and metric recitation style of the past. It is as though a very good reader is telling one a fascinating story. All the other characters join in and for the first time I really understood the full meaning and impact of much of the text, in particular Pilates statements and questions. Jesus'words are also often given a new and convincing interpretation. The crowd are quite terrifying - the really cry out out as described in the text - in addition the performers have no qualms about suddenly accelerating where it makes dramatic sense. The almost pictorial depictions of the various scenes is not confined to the singers - the orchestra backs them up and heightens the effect. This may in part be due to the fact that this is one or two voice per part performance with a small orchestra. One hears textures and orchestral parts that one hasn't heard before - that at least was my experience. In short, a really "new" St.John passion, miles away from the routine which traditions can bring with them. Here we have a performance which is really innovative and not just another version. I leave it to others to evaluate the quality of the individual singers. Suffice it to say that, compared with the overall dramatic impact this is a relatively unimportant aspect. As far as I know there is only one documented reaction by a listener to one of Bach's passions when they were first performed in Leipzig. She? stated that it was like an opera. If you like both opera and Bach this could be the recording for you.
I discoverd this CD listening the radio, and said "I must have it!". Although I've known a lot of previous recordings of this masterpiece, with "La Chapelle Rhénane" was like hearing for the first time the perfect beauty of Bach's music, together with the strenght of drama. You can feel singers an players moved at every single note. It's really a touching experience.
Wer sich gerne schon mal bei Johann Sebastian Bachs Johannes Passion zur edlen Trauer hinreissen laesst, der wird mit der neuesten Aufnahme von La Chapelle Rhenane unter Benoit Haller gezeigt das Bach eigentlich tief im Herzen ein Rapper war.
Was Haller hier mit der Version der Passio Secundum Johannem veranstaltet - eine Version die er sich aus den verschiedenen Fassungen selber zusammenstellte - ist wirklich voellig neu und anders. Wenn diese ewige Musik einen Zugriff auf die Moderne hat dann so wie Haller das hier anfasst.
Ein blutjunges Team von Saengern - als Evangelist ueberzeugt mit sprachlichem Gesang - endlich mal ein Evangelist der nicht mitweint sondern spannend berichtet! - Julian Pregadien, Sohn von Chistoph der ja bekanntermassen einer der besten Evangelisten seiner Generation ist und war.
Das knallt aus allen Ecken auf dieser Aufnahme - kein seliges, verklaertes Leiden, harter Umgang mit der brutalen Wirklichkeit. Pilatus (gesungen von Dominik Woerner) ist ein echtes arroganter, brutaler roemischer Gewaltmensch. Jesus (Benoit Arnould) ist seiner ebenbuertig - nicht Opfer aber Ueberzeugter Friedensstifter.
Die Turbachoere - das Volk wild, die Chorale mitfuehelnd aber nicht kitschig. Benoit Haller im interessanten Textbuch zur Aufnahme ueber seine Sicht der Passion (leider nur in Englisch und Franzoesisch - ich habe ins Deutsche uebertragen): "...wir koennen uns sofort in die Lage der Akteure versetzen, jemand der sich selber opfert, der betruegt und verleugnet, der andere richtet, oder jemand der (sicher!) aus der Anonymitaet eines aufgebrachten Mobs - nach Brutalitaet bruellt..."
Das Instrumentarium ist auch interssant - Haller bestueckt das kleine Orchester basslastig - Orgel (und auch Clavecin wo noetig), Bassoon, Fagotte, - das wird sehr bauchmaessig und bassbetont - tut der Sache nur gut. Ba-Rock'n'Roll
Ich bin sicher das dieser Weg den Haller hier geht manchen Bach Seligen schocken aber junge Hoehrer begeistern wird. Wer einen rockigen, echten, ehrlichen Bach moechte - bitte schoen. Kein Schwulst, kein Kitsch - Bach pur!
Und - nur mal nebenbei - ich kenne so ziemlich alles was in den letzten Jahrzehnten erschienen ist and Johannes Passion Aufnahmen. Dies ist sicherlich eine der aufregensten.
Und jede Stimme einzeln bestetzt. Eine Meisterleistung des Saenger- und Intrumentalisten-Teams. Und eine wirklich neue Lesart des alten Bach jung wie nie!
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