Peter Rein

Constantly in search of eclectic and meaningful programmes, the soprano Anna Prohaska here celebrates ‘life in death’. An ambitious programme, conceived with Robin Peter Müller and his ensemble La Folia, which takes us on a journey across the centuries and through many different countries, with French chansons of the Middle Ages (including one by Guillaume de Machaut), seventeenth-century Italian pieces by Luigi Rossi, Francesco Cavalli and Barbara Strozzi, German composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Dietrich Buxtehude, Christoph Graupner, Franz Tunder) and the English luminaries Henry Purcell… plus John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A musical and spiritual quest that even takes in a detour to North America with a universally known song by Leonard Cohen.

Constantly in search of eclectic and meaningful programmes, the soprano Anna Prohaska here celebrates ‘life in death’. An ambitious programme, conceived with Robin Peter Müller and his ensemble La Folia, which takes us on a journey across the centuries and through many different countries, with French chansons of the Middle Ages (including one by Guillaume de Machaut), seventeenth-century Italian pieces by Luigi Rossi, Francesco Cavalli and Barbara Strozzi, German composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Dietrich Buxtehude, Christoph Graupner, Franz Tunder) and the English luminaries Henry Purcell… plus John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A musical and spiritual quest that even takes in a detour to North America with a universally known song by Leonard Cohen.

Bachs Passions and other great choral works in performances with the Staatskapelle Dresden under the masterly direction of Peter Schreier who also sings the role of the Evangelist. Schreiers aim in Bach interpretation is to bring new lightness without following the full dictates of authentic performance, and in this he succeeds superbly. The recording is first rate, with the choral forces well separated.

Das im Jahr 2010 begonnene Bach-Projekt mit dem Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks unter Leitung von Peter Dijkstra findet seinen Abschluss mit der Gesamtaufnahme der Messe h-moll, die im April 2016 im Herkulessaal der Münchner Residenz aufgenommen wurde. Damit umfasst es nun die vier Gipfelwerke Bachs – die drei »protestantischen Oratorien« sowie die »große katholische Messe« – in einer herausragenden künstlerischen Qualität, mit renommierten Vokalsolisten und begleitet von hochkarätigen Ensembles der historischen Aufführungspraxis: drei Werke entstanden in Zusammenarbeit mit Concerto Köln, ein weiteres mit der Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

The opening with the opening choir "Kommt, ihr Töchter" immediately sets the tone; not a quick-played waltz, but imposing and wide-set, like the start of a great human drama. Richter exceeds 11 minutes with this tempo. Only the version by Otto Klemperer is even slower. But unlike Klemperer, here in the rest of the MP we are not dealing with a somewhat stately approach, but with a sharply profiled and dramatic one!

In its scale and gravitas, Otto Klemperer’s interpretation of the St Matthew Passion draws on the Bach performance style that developed in the 19th century; but its clarity, its underlying energy, and its superb array of soloists – singers with impeccable operatic credentials – also ensure that full justice is done to the drama of Bach’s sublime retelling of the Gospel story.