Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Johannes-Passion, St John Passion BWV 245 (1724-49)
Evangelist and Tenor – Alexei Martinov (tenor)
Jesus and Bass – Anatoly Safiulin (bass)
Lyudmila Belobragina (soprano)
Nina Romanova (mezzo-soprano)
Petrus and Pilatus – Yuri Saveliev (bass)
The Boys’ Choir of the Moscow State Choral School
Leningrad Chamber Orchestra of Old and Modern Music/Eduard Serov
rec. live radio broadcast, 15 November 1981, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory
Russian, German and English notes and track list; no texts; stereo ADD
MELODIYA MELCD1002379 [64:16+66:05]
I am by no means of the opinion that the only way to perform Bach is to embrace the more extreme tenets of the Historically Informed Period Practice brigade and employ OVPP with a severely reduced, period instrument orchestra. In fact, my preferred recordings of the St John Passion are the very traditional and conservative versions conducted by Forster, Scherchen and Gõnnenwein, all from the 60’s long before the establishment of Period norms – but this latest release from Melodiya, with its plodding tempi, muddy, over-reverberant acoustic and vibrato-heavy soloists is enough to drive me into the arms of the authentic camp.
Things begin badly with really poor sound – wiry, recessed strings, and underlying, rumbling bass mush and little spring in that wonderful opening and the choral lines are obscured by the echo of the venue which endures for several seconds.
There are incidental compensations, such as the decision to use for the chorus the bright-toned Boys’ Choir of the Moscow State Choral School, but the chorales are ponderous and the soloists’ voices are in general stylistically inapt and do not suit the high baroque style: the soprano is shrill and gusty, the tenor whining and piercing in the worst Russian manner and the basses gravelly and lumpy. Their Slavonic German – “soinen” for “seinen”, for example - and imprecise intonation constitute further disadvantages. Mezzo-soprano Nina Romanova is a fine singer but again, her voice is not especially suited to this Fach.
Melodiya have resurrected some wonderful stuff of late but I can think of no reason why anyone would be drawn to this stylistically anachronistic, sonically inferior and artistically deficient recording of one of the great choral masterpieces when there are so many other, better options, in both traditional and period style. If you want traditional performance, one of those I cite in my first paragraph above will more than satisfy; for a bargain, large-scale but historically informed recording, the issue from King’s college conducted by Stephen Cleobury on the Brilliant label was enthusiastically reviewed on MWI. Incidentally, Gary Higginson could not detect a recording date or venue on the issue he reviewed but I can tell you it was 21 March 1996, in King’s College Chapel. It is has also been issued on the “Musica di Angeli” label.
Ralph Moore
