Part 4 starts out with a happy, hopeful, and uplifting Coro of moderate
tempo.  The most significant theme of the text is one of quenching the rage
and fury of the enemy.  This could be read as a "crushing" of the enemy,
but Bach's music sees it as a divine intervention which engenders good will
in all ememies.  It's a nice idea which just hasn't taken hold yet and
likely never will.  The timings of the version are different, but the
spirit and quality of the interpretations are very similar.  Jacobs clocks
in at 5 minutes, Koopman at 6 minutes, and Gardiner and Herreweghe at the
mid-point.  The music is very good and immediately appealing.

Up next is a fine Evangelist recitative followed by a bass recitative which
turns into either a duet or continues as a recitative with sopranos in the
background.  Both approaches can be excellent.  Koopman has sopranos in the
background; they sound delicious with Klaus Mertens giving an outstanding
performance.  Jacobs uses the same approach but his sopranos don't sound
heavenly and Klaus Hager is merely competent.  The duet approach is superb
with Nancy Argenta and Olaf Bar working wonders for Gardiner, not so good
with Barbara Schlick and Peter Kooy for Herreweghe.  Koopman and Gardiner's
are the versions of choice.

With the next aria, one for soprano, I'm thinking of comfort, serenity,
patience, doubt, order, emotional support, eating crow, and echoes.  I've
always thought that Bach was musically patient and orderly; that's a
combination I generally find irresistable in music and people (I don't
possess much of either).  The soprano aria is a model of patience and
order; everything unfolds comfortably and with precision.  Oboes are
featured and they appreciably support patience and order.  What's with the
echoes? There's a soprano echo voice in each version.  The singer is not
emotionally quite sure of the divinity of the infant or the extent of the
infant's powers.  The echo is a voice to give greater strength to the
singer to maintain a constancy of faith in god and spirit.  In Jacob's
version, the more recessed oboe even provides an echo of its own.  Although
I must admit that I didn't find the soprano echoes musically advantageous,
they have great meaning to the text.

Doubt which leads to the need for emotional support looms large in my
preferred version.  Each recording offers most of what the aria requires
for it to be superb music set to text.  All the oboe playing is fine with
Gardiner's at the top (he's usually great with brass and winds).  Dorothea
Roshmann, Nancy Argenta, and Lisa Larsson deliver very good performances,
but it's Barbara Schlick for Herreweghe who outshines them.  First, her
voice in this aria largely steers clear of the tendency for it to break
and waver.  Second, "doubt" and "ambivalence" are embedded in Schlick's
Interpretation.  And I'm eating crow because I didn't think there was
any chance that Schlick would do anything but bring Herreweghe down.

Schlick continues her questioning ways in the bass recitative with soprano
(or soprani) choral.  Schlick no longer has any doubts about the Lord; now,
she (and the bass) question how best to praise and thank the Lord.  Again,
Schlick is superb; she owns this area of emotions.  The other versions
are good.  Jacobs is the slowest but effective; he uses soprani, so does
Koopman.  Gardiner does well with one soprano.  But these three versions,
particularly Gardiner and Koopman, have their female singers recessed in
the soundstage.  I see no text related reason for this decision, and
Schlick is ample proof that it is more musically enriching for soprano
and bass to share center stage in this piece.

It's now time for the tenors to shine in an aria of forward motion where
the violins and tenor share center stage.  The instrumental passages of
the aria are fantastic as they give the violins the opportunity to take
the listener on a great journey to the edge of the universe.  Herreweghe's
violins do just that with perfection.  Herreweghe has the slowest tempo
which is just right for bringing out all the detail of every violin,
gaining intimacy with the istruments, and spending more time with them;
he does all this without sacrificing any excitement.  His tenor, Howard
Crook does well, but the piece does lag a little as Crook does not quite
stay in tune with Herreweghe's pacing.  After Herreweghe, I ate dinner,
then commenced with Gardiner.  He's very fast, and his violins sacrifice
all that Herreweghe's display; Hans-Peter Blochwitz is at Crook's level.
Jacob's violins are quite good, although not in Herreweghe's class; Werner
Gura is okay.  Koopman's advantage is having Christoph Pregardien who
brings life and beauty to the vocalism.  All told, Herreweghe and Koopman
are the better renditions.

The concluding choral is a very attractive piece.  The text is about
beseeching Jesus for a number of things including "curbing the senses".
Koopman will have no curbing of the senses; just the opposite, he flies
through this choral piece obliterating any sense of the text.  More
important, the music sounds worse for it.  It has no depth, no
significance, and is more of a caricature.  Jacobs is at the other end
of the tempo range; he is slow, and it works well.  Jacob's version is
definitely in keeping with the text and quite beautiful, but it is not the
best.  Herreweghe and Gardiner have the moderate tempos with Herreweghe
doing as well as Jacobs.  Gardiner's is special.  His pacing is perfect,
and the interpretation gives meaning to every musical phrase.  Gardiner
provides an infectious bounce to the music, and he is within the boundaries
of a "beseeching" theme as his version displays some eagerness.  Also, his
oboes are achingly beautiful.

Herreweghe was the most effective in Part 4, largely due to Barbara Schlick
and the violin contributions which were outstanding.  Herreweghe has been
competitive with Gardiner and Koopman.  Jacobs has not, and I feel some
regret about it as he has provided some stunning choral work and the more
unusual tempos.  The tempos have worked well at times, but his tenor and
bass are not competitive and those roles are frequent in the work.

Don Satz
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