Monday 2 June 2008

Ein Bachabend -- perhaps anticipating my projected pilgrimage to Eisenach (and Halle) later this year. Seven Bach cantatas in one evening! A record. The first three were directed by Sigiswald Kuijken, the last four by Philippe Herreweghe. Of the two, Herreweghe pleased me more, with a more solid approach, more solid sound, and superior soloists. Kuijken favours a "Bach-Lite" approach, and I really do not approve of "choirs" with just the four soloists -- and I'm sure Bach wouldn't like it, either. And Kuijken's energy can sound a bit frantic on occasions.

Bach's music is endlessly fascinating; and pretty difficult, too, for the singers on many occasions. Kuijken's soprano, Siri Thornhill, doesn't impress too much, with a thin, reedy voice. And his tenor, Marcus Ullmann, struggles on occasions. Herreweghe's team fairs better, but the tenor, again (Hans Jörg Mammel) often makes the difficult music sound difficult. Prompts the reflection that the extraordinary high technical standards now taken for granted in instrumental playing have not, for some reason or another, carried over into the vocal part of the music schools.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Harry

An interesting comment on the state of vocal tuition in music schools. In the UK we are very fortunate to have a unique combination of cathedral choir schools and the Oxbridge colleges to give us the basis of a huge array of brilliant choral groups. They include the Monteverdi Singers who to me make such an excellent job of the Bach Cantatas using soloist from the choir. To me the choice is between Elliott Gardiner and Susuki.

Many members of these groups also teach vocal technique at the music colleges and that also helps the development of good singers, if not as world-class as we might wish, in the UK.

In Europe there is no such early training. In addition the days when the opera houses of Europe had quite large resident choruses have also disappeared. A final comment is that there are few good competitions for singers that enable them to attract agents, which is why the Cardiff competition in particular is so high profile.

I could comment at length on the issue of the size of the choirs Bach used. At one end is Rifkin with a voice per part and at the other end is Mendelssohn using 159 for his performance of the St. Matthew Passion. Another time and another place perhaps

Martin White

4 June 2008 at 23:18
Harry Collier said...

Ah, well. There is the question of the size of choirs that Bach actually used. Then there is the question of what size of choir Bach would have regarded as ideal for the kind of music he was performing at a given time. As to what he used: probably depended a lot on where he was, who was off sick or drunk that day, how many of the potential choir members were really up to it. At the Leipzig choir school that Bach supervised for much of this life, we know he had around 50 choristers. It is difficult to imagine that 46 of them were unemployed for much of the time!
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. I dislike large choirs in Bach, and dislike one voice to a part (as with Kuijken, Parrot and a few others). Most of the time I seem to prefer listening to a choir of around 12-16 in the cantatas (ie, 3-4 voices per part). This provides a good contrast with Bach's busy orchestra, and also with the soloists and occasional vocal duets. For the "big" works such as the Mass in B minor, or the St Matthew Passion, I like Klemperer's choir of 40 (8 per part, for 5-part choruses).

5 June 2008 at 09:23

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