Texte paru dans: / Appeared in:
PHI |
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Appréciation d'ensemble / Overall evaluation :
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Reviewer: Paul Riley It seems to be the season for revisiting Bach Passions. Hot on the heels of Masaaki Suzukis second recording of St Matthew comes Philippe Herreweghe’s third of St John. While Suzuki’s is essentially a replay, Herreweghe’s is more of a rethink: after 2001's flirtation with the 1725 ‘second thoughts’, it reverts to the 1724 original he recorded back in 1987, this time with slimmed-down though net ultra-minimalist forces. The result is net only the ‘best of three’, but a recording that leaves most competitors floundering.
Herreweghe's
unswerving focus is evident from the opening chorus, whose elemental summons is
exactingly calibrated, dark-grained and resolute. The urgency of the
declamations of 'Herr'- dramatic, yet never spuriously attention-seeking -
signal Herreweghe's whole approach: his crowd scenes can embrace perky sarcasm
to self-righteous spleen without spilling river into caricature. Perhaps there’s
not quite the electricity John Eliot Gardiner earths, but that’s not
Herreweghe’s way. His tempos strike home without exaggeration and he’s assembled
a formidable tean. Maximilian Schmitt’s Evangelist narrates with exemplary
pacing and dramatic involvement, while Krešimir Stražnac's Jesus needs no halo
of strings à la St Matthew Passion to consecrate his authority. Among the
plenitudinous arias, Dorothee Mields’s beguiling light-as-air 'lch folge Dir'
and sovereign 'Zerfliesse mein Herze’, the aching stillness of Damien Guillon’s'
‘Es ist vollbracht’, and Robin Tritschler’s ‘Ach, mein Sind’, are stand-outs.
But ultimately Herreweghe’s is an ensemble triumph, a symbiotic entwining of
voice and instruments that brings about repeated moments of wonder.
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