The Choir of New College, Oxford, Collegium Novum Ensemble, Edward Higginbottom - conductor - Johann Sebastian Bach - St John Passion (2 CDs)
Артист: The Choir of New College, Oxford, Collegium Novum Ensemble, Edward Higginbottom - conductor
Альбом: Johann Sebastian Bach - St John Passion (2 CDs), 2003
Издатель: Naxos / 8.557296-97
Жанр: Classical
Формат файла: EAC / FLAC / CUE / LOG
Ссылка: CD
Нахождение: Torrent

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)

St John Passion, BWV 245 (2 CDs)


Label: Naxos, 8.557296-97
Year: 2003



Performers:

John Bernays - baritone
Eamonn Dougan - baritone
James Bowman - countertenor
Matthew Beale - tenor
Colin Baldy - baritone
Joe Littlewood - treble
James Gilchrist - tenor

The Choir of New College, Oxford
Collegium Novum Ensemble

Edward Higginbottom - conductor


Bach’s St John Passon shows the composer’s towering imagination at its most intensely dramatic, moving and vivid. Christ’s trial and death are retold by soloists acting as participants in the event but also meditating upon it in reflective arias; the choir’s role alters from rowdy mob baying for crucifixion to that of a congregation singing quiet, redemptive chorales. Criticised in its day for being too operatic, the work is now revered for its originality, for its faith and above all for its incomparable beauty of musical thought. The new reading is a testament to the vitality of the choral tradition: all soloists are former or current members of New College Choir. It also presents a new level of authenticity, not only with period instruments but also with boys’ voices as Bach would have used at St Thomas in Leipzig.

"Recorded in New College, Oxford, the resident choristers, choral scholars and lay clerks appear to be entirely at ease with the special juxtaposition of quicksilver action and warm reflection which Bach demands in his choruses and chorales. One can too easily overplay the importance of 'environment' at the expense of plain musical inspiration, but Edward Higginbottom delivers a palpable sense of narrative, unfussy, as if habit lies at the root of its being. This, I suppose, is what gives New College its most 'authentic' correlation with the church-university context of Leipzig in Bach's day: a practising foundation undertaking its duties within rich ecclesiastical and academic traditions."

Conductor’s Introduction

There are two things to say about this performance of the St John Passion. They are linked. First, it is a celebration of the strength and vitality of the choral tradition at New College. All the vocal parts are sung by present and former members of the choir. The second is that the performance can aspire to a level of authenticity almost entirely absent in other recordings. Like Bach, we use boys’ voices. Furthermore, our performance has much in common with Bach’s Leipzig circumstances, where a Protestant church had close links with the university, and where the coming together of the two furnished Bach with his musical and liturgical forces. With regard to another authenticity matter, I do not ignore the evidence for single strings and voices in Bach performance, but the evidence also points to the use of ripienists, employed in the numbers an institution might be able and wish to provide. There are plenty of historical precedents for institutions using the numbers they had to hand, and provided Bach’s counterpoint is clear, there can be no objection. These are my reasons for adding a New College St John Passion to the discography, believing that the performance is distinctive in crucial respects.

Edward Higginbottom



user posted image
user posted image

LOG
SPOILER!