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Reviewer: John
W. Barker Nowadays, one of the important elements on which impressions and judgements are made on recordings of Bach’s great Mass is the size of the performing group. Christie, one of the pioneers of period performance, describes his ensembles here as “of modest proportions”. Well, his chorus is listed as 21 mixed voices, though the photograph of the whole crew seems to suggest at least a dozen more. The orchestra consists of 16 string players and 14 on other instruments (including Christie himself on continuo harpsichord), for a total of 30. That is certainly distant from the monumental—not to say mastodonic— recordings of old, especially given Christie’s preference for “brisk” tempos, as against the terribly slow ones of the past. But this is not one of the extremely “minimalist” recordings that have been made of late. The choir here is well disciplined. The women sing without vibrato, which gives their work a ringing clarity that serves the overall texture very well. The singers also give lively, full-bodied, handsomely shaped performances in the choral movements, which can be really exciting, as in the Credo. I do regret that the engineers, or somebody, did not make clear the distinctions between the two choirs in the Osana.
The orchestra is exemplary and quite solid for its numbers. The four vocal soloists are typical of the young Baroque singers Christie has been nurturing. They sing with care and artistic confidence. Morsch is really a high baritone and lacks the fullness of a proper bass; he also has a few difficulties with fast passages. Mead is a good countertenor, but I would have preferred a female contralto here. All in all, I guess this performance would fit into the upper edges of historically informed “compromise” efforts. But added to all that is the fact that Christie understands the work not as piece of pretentious vastness but rather as a personal testament that Bach made to his art and to his faith. Christie finds that “humanistic” in today’s terms. This is, then, a valid and consistently satisfying interpretation. This was recorded in a public performance in September 2016, part of a tour with the work undertaken in that year. It is worth preserving as a good choice among many current competitors. Authoritative notes by Christoph Wolff; full texts and translations. | ||||
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