Before you even start listening to this recording,
the presentation suggests something rather opulent and special. Tucked
into the kind of clamshell box in which you expect to find at least
two or possibly three CDs, this release has just the usual single disc
for J.S. Bach’s complete
Motets in its own card foldout
holder. The box also includes a nice glossy booklet with texts in German,
Swedish and English, notes on each motet and plenty of photos and background
information on the musicians involved.
About as far removed from the
a cappella Hilliard Ensemble recording
from the ECM label which I looked at a few years ago (see
review),
these are full-fat performances of the Bach motets, with a choir big
enough to deliver spectacular antiphonal effects, and an instrumental
accompaniment with plenty of solidity to go along with a transparent
period sound and limber lightness of touch which prevents everything
sliding into early/mid 20
th century heaviness.
Hunting for comparisons, the Monteverdi Choir/Gardiner recording on
Soli Deo Gloria (see
review)
has a similarly lively vibe but is a drier recording and rather choir-heavy,
with enough
sibilance to
sail a
small
ship.
The fuller instrumental sound with this Proprius recording means you
hear more texture in the accompaniment, where with Gardiner you get
the bass line but not a huge amount of anything else. Masaaki Suzuki
and his Bach Collegium Japan on BIS (see
review)
is always an enticing prospect, and in sonority comes closer than Gardiner
to the fullness of Gary Graden’s team, though on returning to
this recording you do wonder if the buzz-saw lead violin might perhaps
have been a little lower in the balance. My feeling with Suzuki is that
the motets are treated as jewels which are perhaps just a little
too
precious, and my liking for the Graden recording comes in large part
from the energy and spacious generosity which leaps palpably from your
speakers.
I’ll go for one more comparison, which is the Collegium Vocale
Gent led by Philippe Herreweghe (see
review).
This is very much the tidied-up single voice to a part kind of interpretation
to which many will have become accustomed in recent years, a single
organ sometimes providing all of the harmonic support required, the
contrast between this and the motets which include winds and strings
making for an attractive sequence. There is much to be said for the
clean sound of such versions, and a little more variation in instrumental
forces in the Proprius version might not have come amiss, though the
strings are silenced in
Ich lasse Dich nicht, du segnest mich den,
pungent bassoons doing the honours amongst some sublime choral polyphony.
All things considered this Swedish recording of Bach’s
Motets
is a resounding success. Concertmaster Maria Lindal has her own little
section in the booklet, and it sounds as if she was given a microphone
all to herself for the recording. This adds upper register sheen and
isn’t much of a problem through speakers but can wear thin through
headphones, which also show up little blemishes such as what sounds
like an extra little note at 7:02 into
Jesu, meine Freude. The
acoustic setting for the recording is big and fully in scale for these
powerful performances, though gentle subtlety is also very much a part
of the musicianship here. The magnificent divided choirs of something
like
Komm, Jesu, komm are the clincher for me in this recording,
turning Bach’s motets into something more like a guilty pleasure
than a hair-shirt religious duty. If you give this box as a present
make sure you double wrap it with an inner lining of silver foil, such
are the deliciously rich and chocolaty rewards inside.
Dominy Clements
