Gloria IN Excelsis Deo

In June 1995, a virtually unknown group of Japanese musicians embarked on the monumental task of recording the complete sacred cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. Almost eighteen years later, on 23rd February 2013, the Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki – by then household names in the international music world – reached their goal, as they finished recording the 55th disc in a series which in the meantime had met with overwhelming acclaim worldwide. Made in conjunction with the final cantata recording, this film commemorates the occasion. Besides filmed performances of the three last cantatas – Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV191, Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV69 and Freue dich, erlöste Schar, BWV30 – the film includes interviews with Masaaki Suzuki and key members of Bach Collegium Japan as well as behind-the-scenes footage.

This disc recycles some performances by the German historical-instrument group Virtuosi Saxoniae, originally issued between 1986 and 1995. As such, it improves not only on most of the budget compilations issued by the label involved, Berlin Classics, but on the majority of such compilations in general. The same group is involved all the way through, for one thing; there are different vocal soloists, but the interpretive environment is consistent. More important, the compilation rearranges the original material into something new and interesting. The selection of music turns on the double use of the sentence "Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis" (Glory to God on high, and peace on earth to people of good will), unfortunately mistranslated in the English booklet notes, although the German is correct. The utterance is given by Luke as that of the Host above the stable in Bethlehem after the birth of Christ; it is also more general, opening the Gloria of the Catholic Mass. The selection of Baroque works here accordingly brings together pieces of various types. There are big settings of the Gloria, either freestanding like the well-known Gloria in D major, RV 589, by Vivaldi, or taken from missae breves or full-length masses.

One of the early pioneers of the Baroque movement, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields has been a leading ensemble in early music for more than half a century. They are one of the most recorded chamber orchestras of the industry, mostly under the baton of the legendary Sir Neville Marriner. This collection of their Vivaldi realisations includes the very popular version of the Gloria with Barbara Hendricks, and concertos with soloists Christopher Parkening, Maurice André, and Iona Brown.

When these recordings first came out, far in advance of the period instrument revolution, they were revelations. Though modern instruments were used, there was an effort to get performance practices right… And there was the incredibly powerful, absolutely heavenly sound of that chorus of men and boys, as well as the lifelike recordings that perfectly captured the vast space of the Chapel of King's College. Since that time there have been other performances that depict the letter of each work to a greater degree than these, but many listeners will argue that there are none that have better encapsulated the spirit of this music… These are star-studded "great singing" recordings in which the artists will be remembered as much as the music itself.

Gioachino Rossini's Messa di Gloria of 1821, right in the middle of the years when he ruled the operatic scene, has been less often recorded than the free-spirited and personal Stabat Mater of his old age. Various reasons could be advanced for this comparative neglect. Stacked up against Rossini's operas of the period it's something of a mixed bag. Some of it is intensely operatic, but it also looks back to the past with its giant contrapuntal "Cum sancto spiritu" (the mass consists of a Kyrie and Gloria). From the point of view of the cult of individual Romantic genius, a major problem is that Rossini may have had a collaborator on the work, one Pietro Raimondi, who honed some of the more polyphonic passages.

It is astonishing that such fine pieces have been so completely neglected.They here inspire Hickox and his team to performances just as electrifying as those they have given of the great series of late Haydn masses.

LEIPZIG is now touted as the “New Berlin”, a mecca for vogueish twenty-somethings who are drawn by the cheap rents in the city and an artistic vibe. In 1989 the former East German industrial hub was said to have the most polluted air in the country, but the city’s illustrious past lives on. Despite extensive bombing of the city in World War II, the famous Thomaskirche and its associated Thomasschule, one of the oldest schools in the world and where the choristers are educated, survive and flourish. The Gewandhaus orchestra, with origins dating to the time of Johann Sebastian Bach in the 1740s, is known as one of the world’s finest symphony orchestras. This recording gives us a picture of musical life in Leipzig some 300 years ago, spanning the consecutive careers of three composers who led the musical activities in the city. The programme demonstrates the connection between JS Bach and his two predecessors. Bach based the general shape of his Magnificat on that of Kuhnau’s, and it was first performed in 1723, the year Bach took over as cantor in Leipzig after Kuhnau’s death. The short Schelle piece provides a rousing advent introduction.