Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Lutheran Masses I
Missa in g minor, BWV235 [25:18]
Missa in G, BWV236 [25:31]
Sanctus, BWV240 [2:22]
Sanctus, BWV241 (Version in E) (Johann Casper Kerll,
arr. Johann Sebastian Bach) [2:00]
Kyrie in c minor from Missa, BWV Anh.26 (Francesco
Durante) with J. S. Bach Christe in g minor, BWV242
[5:29]
Sanctus in D, BWV238 [2:33]
Sanctus in C, BWV237 [1:37]
Hana Blažíková, Joanne Lunn (soprano); Robin Blaze (counter-tenor);
Gerd Türk (tenor); Peter Kooij (bass)
Bach Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki
rec. 2013/14, Kobe Shoin Women’s University Chapel; Saitama Arts Theater Concert Hall,
Japan. DDD
Booklet with texts and translations included.
Reviewed as 24/96 lossless download, with pdf booklet,
from eclassical.com
BIS BIS-2081 SACD [65:30]
The Lutheran Church in Bach’s day remained a conservatively evangelical
body, as it still is in Scandinavia, though elements of Calvinism were
beginning to enter its North German heartland. Thus the Latin Magnificat
still featured at Vespers on high days and Bach composed two versions
of his setting of this, one specifically for Christmas, the other for
general use.
On such days, too, the opening sections of the Hauptgottesdienst
or principal service featured the Latin Kyrie and Gloria
of the Mass and Bach composed several settings of what is generally
known as a Lutheran or short Mass. As it happens, I’m writing this review
at Pentecost (Whitsun), which would have been such an occasion: certainly
it seems likely that another Mass section, the Sanctus in C,
would have been heard on Whit Sunday or the following week, Trinity
Sunday, 1723, soon after Bach’s arrival in Leipzig. The notes which
accompany this new recording entertain the possibility that the Masses
may not have been performed in Leipzig but could have been externally
commissioned.
Four such settings are extant, BWV233-236 and two of these are included
on the new recording. The existence of such works is easy to explain
as part of the needs of the congregation which Bach served, though the
purpose of the complete and lengthy b-minor Mass, BWV232, suitable only
for the Roman Rite, is still something of a mystery, albeit that it,
too, started life as a short Lutheran Mass.
All the music of these short Masses is ‘borrowed’ from Bach’s other
works – that was his way and Handel’s, too – but its fits the new context
well, sometimes better than the original, and there need be no holding
back on that account, in spite of the disapproval of no less a Bachian
than Albert Schweitzer who called these settings ‘perfunctory and nonsensical’.
If you think that settings of just two sections of the Mass approaching
half an hour each hardly sound ‘short’ and that they would have made
for a very long service, especially when there would also have been
a cantata between the Matins and Mass parts of the service and a lengthy
sermon, you will not be surprised to learn that the Hauptgottesdienst
ran to upwards of two hours – and that seems to have been the norm for
the Anglican Church, too, in earlier times, with Matins, Litany and
Communion, including a sermon or official homily, the main Sunday morning
fare.
Occasionally, too, a setting of the Latin Sanctus would be performed
and four such settings by Bach, one of them an arrangement of music
by his predecessor Johann Casper Kerll and one of a Mass by the Italian
Francesco Durante, are also included on this CD.
The qualities of Suzuki’s Bach hardly need to be elaborated at this
stage: my colleagues and I have had much to say in favour of his now-complete
set of the church cantatas and the great b-minor Mass. In the cantatas
there is fierce opposition from complete sets and individual recordings
but, without trying to assign a rank order, Suzuki and his team’s BIS
recordings come at or very near the top of any assessment. Two of my
colleagues chose his cantata cycle for MWI
Recommends and the same qualities are in evidence here again.
The competition in these Lutheran Masses is also surprisingly strong,
with very fine recent recordings from The Sixteen (Coro COR16115 and
16120 – review),
Ton Koopman (Challenge Classics CC72188, 2 CDs – review
and review:
Recording of the Month), Konrad Junghänel (Harmonia Mundi HMC901939/40,
now download only), Pygmalion (Alpha 816, 3 CDs, budget price, with
Motet Der Gerechte kommt um and Cantata 118), the Ricercar Consort
(BWV235 on Mirare 102) and equally fine older recordings from the Purcell
Quartet (Chandos CHAN0642 and 0653 – review)
and Philippe Herreweghe (super-budget Erato/Virgin Veritas 6284812,
2 CDs, or 6482912, 6 CDs, with Mass in b minor and Christmas
Oratorio – review).
My colleague John Quinn has reminded me of the wonderful 2-CD performance
of BWV233 which used to be available on DG Archiv as one of Paul McCreesh’s
masterly reconstructions, in this case of a Lutheran Mass for Epiphany.
Incredibly it’s no longer available, even as a download. Amazon UK
are offering a copy for £52 which, for once, doesn’t seem exorbitant.
Too many of Paul McCreesh’s very fine recordings have disappeared from
the catalogue, though I’m very pleased to see that Signum have now taken
him up: there’s a new recording of Handel’s L’Allegro, Il Penseroso
ed Il Moderato hot off the press (SIGCD392, 2 CDs, mid-price).
I can’t imagine any Bach lover being seriously disappointed with any
one of these recordings, least of all the new BIS. Working with his
Japanese Bach Collegium and a well-tried team of soloists, Suzuki brings
this life-enhancing music to us in performances which help to explain
how those Lutheran burghers managed to sit for so long without complaint.
I wouldn’t have minded sitting through the Hauptgottesdienst
myself for music of this quality – the cantata for the day, too, remember
– though I doubt whether the forces at Bach’s disposal at the Thomaskirche
were anything like as good as these. If I have one reservation it is
that I find the hard t and g in gratias agimus tibi
propter magnam gloriam tuam grating, but I can’t complain: that
is the pronunciation which prevailed in Germany and throughout Northern
Europe in Bach’s time.
The new BIS recording is on SACD and is obtainable in 24/96 sound of
comparable quality from eclassical.com
– whenever I have been able to make direct comparison between the stereo
HD layer of a BIS SACD and the 24-bit download I have been unable to
prefer one to the other. Having raised doubts about the recording level
of some recent BIS SACDs, I’m delighted to report that I have no complaints
at all about the excellent quality of this new recording. At the time
of writing 24-bit was available for the same price as mp3 and 16-bit:
watch out for these limited-period offers. If you can’t run to the
extra cost of 24-bit, however, 16-bit and mp3 are also very good of
their kind.
There are first-rate notes in the booklet – the information on the provenance
of BWV Anh.26a, for example, supplements my favourite introduction to
Bach by Malcolm Boyd in the Dent Master Musicians series where it isn’t
even listed. With a second volume clearly implied in the title, BIS
make the competition even hotter than before. Those who collect Suzuki’s
Bach and those in search of SACD-quality sound will have no hesitation,
while others should also be confident that this is one of the finest
of several very fine recordings of some life-enhancing music.
Brian Wilson