Helmut Rilling, who is known for his recordings of Bach's cantatas,
as well as many other of Bach's works, directs a recording of Bach's motets,
sacred, choral works which are among Bach's finest works for the choir.
Motets are essentially choral solos, with a limited instrumental accompaniment.
They can be performed in many different ways, with forces ranging from
one to two voices per part (such as Cantus Colln's recording) or with
a huge choir, as here, with almost 40 singers. There are differences in
tempi as well, with some of the smaller ensembles performing them at what
can rightly be called top-speed, and others, such as Rilling's choir here,
performing them slowly and meditatively.
These works are very hard to perform; their lush polyphonic
texture is difficult to render, and these difficulties are apparent
here. Rilling's choir is often top-heavy, with the sopranos sounding
almost shrill on this recording. Part of this is indeed the recording,
which is shallow and lacking in dynamic range, but Rilling seems to
favour the higher voices too much, neglecting the foundation of the
music.
For Rilling's credit, it must be pointed out that he
performs all the motets here - including some that are considered spurious
- providing one of the few truly "complete" recordings of these works.
But after a while, they all sound alike. Rilling is unable to make the
vocal textures come alive, and the sound of each motet seems to be a
repetition of the previous ones. There is no attempt to change the tone
colours in any way; it seems as though Rilling is conducting these pieces
just to play them, not to give any kind of original performance.
The filming is unimaginative - though how much imagination
can you use when filming a large, static choir - and since the sound
is poor, there is little reason to buy this DVD instead of a CD, except
for the presence of all of Bach's motets.
This DVD is interesting for its contents - all of Bach's
motets, including the spurious ones - yet the performance falls flat
and the sound is disappointing. You are better off buying a CD of these
works.
Kirk McElhearn
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1759) 
Helmut Rilling