Walter Meyer wrote:
>Johan van Veen wrote:
>
>>Even if the British understand the German language, very few can speak
>>it fluently and very few seem to truely understand the differentiations
>>of the language.
>
>But the text of the b minor mass is in Greek (the Kyrie) and Latin!
Had you read my message carefully, you would have noticed that I was
making some general points about the English approach to Bach and German
baroque music in general. Of course, since the b-minor Mass is in Latin,
the language isn't a problem - apart from the fact that some performances
still use the Italian pronunciation in stead of the German - my point is
that the native language of a composer also influences his instrumental
writing. Therefore whoever wants to play an instrumental piece by Bach has
to have a good knowledge of the German language. As I said, baroque music
is based on speaking. Rhetorics - the art of speaking - was one of the
main things every baroque musician had to learn.
Alberto Larzabal wrote:
>?Which are those fantastic "Bachian" choirs? I'm really interested...
I wouldn't take anything away from the technical abilities of the
Monteverdi Choir, I was mainly speaking about the interpretation. I have
heard the choir in Handel oratorios, and noticed that it sounds fine as
long as it can sing loudly and very dramatica stuff, but isn't by far as
convincing when comes down to singing music of a more intimate nature. It
just uses too much vibrato and therefore isn't as transparent as it should
be. I believe that singing baroque music should be based on speaking.
Therefore the text and every single word are very important. With the
Monteverdi Choir too much details are lost. My alternatives? Well, for
a start I have problems with mixed choirs singing Bach. I prefer choirs
of boys and men, and the Teldec recordings with Bach's cantatas are
unsurpassed in that respect. In particular the Tolz Boys' Choir and the
Hanover Boys' Choir are brilliant. As far as mixed choirs are concerned,
the Collegium Vocale Gent is definitely one of the best, others are the
Stuttgart Chamber Choir and the RIAS Chamber Choir from Berlin. There may
be others, but those are the ones I am thinking of right now.
Tedd A Jander wrote:
>I read an article in the Summer 1999 issue of Early Music America, about a
>version of Bach's Mass in B by Joshua Rifkin from 1982 that had one person
>per part. ... The main point of the article was whether or not Rifkin's
>approach is correct as far as some Bach scholars are concerned. Anyway,
>my main question is this, has anyone heard this recording or heard of this
>approach to Bach's Mass?
I can't go into any detail about this; I am sure you can find some
information on his approach elsewhere. But he believes that Bach intended
his vocal works to be sung by one voice a per part. He is arguing this for
years, but as far as I know most scholars don't believe he is right. As
far as the recording of the b-minor Mass is concerned, it was originally
released on LP by Nonesuch; I found a CD version in my catalogue on Teldec.
Although that recording isn't bad, the problem with Rifkin is his almost
'neutral' approach of Bach's music. There is a complete lack of passion.
He is in many ways returning to the blandness of some recordings from the
early days of HIP, when every sign of emotion was suspect. He has recorded
some Bach cantatas later, and they sound even more bland. He may have
interesting ideas, but he will never win people over with his style of
performance. (By the way, he has conducted the Cappella Coloniensis,
the period instrument orchestra of WDR radio in Cologne, in some Haydn
symphonies, and there his approach was exactly the same.) He has been
conducting music by Schutz in the Early Music Festival in Utrecht some
years ago, and it was awful. Some information: the Bach cantatas have
been released by Decca (Florilegium series). There is also a recording
on Tudor of Bach's Magnificat and a Magnificat by Melchior Hoffmann.
Johan van Veen
Utrecht (Netherlands)
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