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Discussion: Bach: St Matthew Passion - Kuijken

Posts: 5

Post by SteelyTom March 23, 2012 (1 of 5)
O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, I need some help in settling on a St. Matthew Passion recording.

The main SACD contenders (at least until the Japanese reissue Mengelberg's 1939 performance for the equivalent of the gross national product of Guinea-Bissau) are Netherlands Bach Society/van Veldhoven (Channel); Dunedin Consort/Butt (Linn); and this one. All have gotten ecstatic, highly detailed reviews here-- though it's hard to distinguish between varying degress of ecstasy.

Based thereon, I'm inclined to Kuijken, given a general preference for chaste innigkeit over outward drama, and for small scale over large. (I'm also a hopeless fanboy of Northstar Engineering.)

Anyone with any input on sound quality, singing, or any other factor or factors that may make this agonizing choice a little easier?

Post by Polarius T March 23, 2012 (2 of 5)
There is only one Saint Matt, and none other besides it, that of Otto Klemperer who brought forth all things out of it through his conducting:

http://www.amazon.com/Bach-St-Matthew-Passion/dp/B001BEC2XC/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1332527740&sr=1-5 for samples, and

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=TOCE-14130 for SQ while we wait for the hopeful EMI Signature release.

Says,

P(ries)T

Post by Nagraboy March 23, 2012 (3 of 5)
Just noticed that the review of this title comments on the DSD recording, whereas the info for the disc is blankl. I've reported the omission to Zeus.

Are ALL North Star productions DSD?

Post by SteelyTom March 23, 2012 (4 of 5)
To the best of my understanding. They maintain an English-language website with a catalog of their recordings for Challenge and Turtle Records (the latter a Challenge imprint).

Post by Naun March 24, 2012 (5 of 5)
It's a couple of years since I heard the Kuijken, but I've always had a special liking for his Bach performances. There's such subtlety and variety of expression in them, which goes with a special quality of absorption in the playing. I remember liking this St Matthew recording a lot when I heard it. But I've also been listening to the Dunedin/Butt recording, another musically very satisfying performance which is rewarding in a different way. Like the Kuijken, it's a one-voice-to-a-part recording, but the Dunedin recording uses this to emphasize the human drama in the music, giving the ensemble numbers a vivid, "voices in the crowd" sort of character which I think I am going to miss when I go back to other recordings in future. This recording also has a great and none too common strength in a dramatically credible Christ, the fittingly named Matthew Brook. (Though everyone should hear Fischer-Dieskau under Klemperer in this role at least once.) The female voices in the Dunedin recording are rather light and boy-soprano-ish, which is not so much to my personal liking, but I wouldn't be without this version either. I haven't yet heard the Netherlands Bach Society recording on Channel but have very high hopes for it as well after hearing their recording of the St John Passion.

So I'm probably not being too helpful here. Given your stated priorities, Kuijken probably is a good first choice for you. Myself, though, I went and bought them all.

P.S. Just read the reviews here of the Kuijken and Butt recordings, and they describe the qualities of the performances and recordings extremely well.

Closed