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American Record Guide: (03/2021) 
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BIS
BIS2551



Code-barres / Barcode : 7318599925516

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This recording owes its existence to the COVID-19 pandemic. In March of 2020 the singers and players of Bach Collegium Japan were embarked on a European tour of 11 concerts in six countries to celebrate their 30^th anniversary. Arriving in Cologne after 3 concerts, they were informed that the remaining 8 had been cancelled owing to the coronavirus. The intendant of the Cologne Philharmonie made an offer for them to give a live-streamed performance of the St John Passion at the time the concert had been scheduled, but the cancellation of the other concerts left the artists with time on their hands. At this point, Masaaki Suzuki’s wife Tamaki, who sings in the choir, suggested that they make a recording. BIS records gave the go-ahead, and there was considerable scrambling to assemble a producer, crew, and recording equipment. The intendant offered the use of the main hall of the Philharmonie free of charge, and for four days the recording sessions proceeded. As they were approaching the end of the project, the police arrived with orders that the building be vacated  immediately and closed. As it happened, one of the policemen had heard the live-streamed performance and allowed the musicians and crew an hour to complete their work. The result is the present recording.

Bach Collegium Japan recorded the St John Passion in 1998 (BIS 921; S/O 1999). My review of that recording could almost be a review of this one. There are some differences apart from the names of the solo singers, but not enough to constitute a substantial rethinking of Bach’s masterwork. There is considerable drama built into the work, especially the arrest scene in Part I and the interrogations under Pontius Pilate in Part II; but Suzuki’s interpretation is at its strongest where the music calls for lyrical reflection. Nowhere is this more the case than in the alto aria ‘Es Ist Vollbracht’, performed here at a slow and ruminative tempo and heartbreakingly sung by countertenor Damien Guillon. His aria in Part I—’Von den Stricken’—does not come off nearly as well. The tempo seems prodded and Guillon’s tone less substantial. The opening chorus is one of the places where the two recordings differ considerably. Here the orchestral prelude sets off with a bang, and the choral entrance evokes palpable anguish. The tempo was a touch slower and the treatment gentler in 1998. Another magical moment in the present recording is the penultimate chorus, ‘Ruht Wohl’, where Suzuki captures the perfect feel of a solemn triple-meter tombeau.

 

I am not convinced by Suzuki’s treatment of the chorales. In an essay published in the booklet with this recording, Bach scholar Robin Leaver likens the chorales to “the pillars of a gothic church building” that hold up the arches and vaults of the narration, dialogs, and devotional arias and ariosos. I believe that this function demands that the chorales be treated with a deliberate and solemn formality. If the tempo is too brisk and the treatment too subjective this function is defeated, or at least badly compromised, as is sometimes the case here. Another element of this recording that I find annoying is the harpsichord continuo. It seems too obtrusive and busy when it should be supportive and even self-effacing. I made a similar complaint about the 1998 recording.

Tenor James Gilchrist is an expressive but not excessively histrionic Evangelist. In the more agitated portions of the narrative, Suzuki makes rapid and breathless joins between dialog, crowd choruses, and narrative. The result is vehement and driving but not always effectively dramatic. Vehemence is cheap; drama can be elusive. Bach never left a fully definitive score of the St John Passion as he did with the St Matthew. There are four discernible versions, beginning in 1724. In 1725 Bach produced three replacement arias and choruses that would eventually become part of the St Matthew Passion and Cantata 23. The third version omits these additions as well as a passage of narration taken from St Matthew’s Gospel. A tenor aria and instrumental sinfonia written for this version are now lost. In 1739 Bach began to write what might have been the definitive score of the St John Passion, but he broke off midway through the 10th movement. The fourth version of 1749 returns to the formal conception of the first version, but with some modifications of the text and revisions of instrumentation. This recording gives the 1739 version as far as it goes, and then 1749. There will probably never be a perfect recording of so complex a work. Elements that please one listener may displease another. Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan invariably present performances of the highest technical caliber by some of the finest exponents of this repertory. Readers looking for a first recording of this masterpiece could do far worse than this one.

 

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