Search - Netherlands Bach Society Choir, Klaus Mertens, Kai Wessel :: Bach - Johannes-Passion / Schlick · Wessel · de Mey · Türk · Mertens · Kooy · ABO · Koopman

Looking for 'the best performance'? Don't miss Koopman's!

Michel Couzijn | Hillegom, Netherlands | 01/03/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In The Netherlands, a very Bach-loving country, Ton Koopman is regarded as 'Mr. Bach'. If you haven't heard performances of Bach's music by Koopman before, this John Passion is a great way to start acquiring a Koopman addiction. His approach is not very idiosyncratic (as was Harnoncourt's), but it is definitely 'authentic' and concentrated, in a way that pays properly due to musicality and emotion. The sound in this recording is highly transparent, but not dry. The tempi are such that you can follow both the passion story unfold and Bach's musical lines develop. Right from the start the strings and wind instruments will catch your breath and Koopman won't leave you alone for the next two hours. If you are looking for 'the best performance' of the John Passion, you should defnitely not leave Koopman's contribution from your wish list."

Saint John is a Cry for Peace

Jacques COULARDEAU | OLLIERGUES France | 08/06/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Passion, like all Passions by J.S. Bach are church operas without any setting. The story is a real plot. The use of voices and chorus are operatical. The lyricism of the music and the singing is undeniable. We are here in total continuity with old biblical operas from the Midlle Ages and the Renaissance. The first important element is that Bach finds a refuge and a compensation in his music for the hardness and hardships of his life : the loss of a job, the next job which is far from being ideal and good in Leipzig, the mercantile city that is not exactly art-minded, the loss of a wife and his second wife who has to drop her singing career. Bach is thus personally motivated in his depicting of the suffering of Jesus. The second element is the tremendous fluidity of the language and the use of the music of the German language of the text to sustain and enhance the music itself. At this level we can even hear from time to time what will be characteristic of the great German deeply sombre and dramatic operas of the 19th century, from Beethoven to Wagner or even further on. I will not cover all aspects of this Passion but I will insist on two particular levels. Bach punctuates his Passion with the use of the chorus and this chorus gives the deep meaning of the Passion itself. This Passion has often been accused of being antisemitic. If we listen to the chorus carefully, we are far from that. The chorus is used in four different directions. First it takes the form of a psalm of a hymn and it opens to some kind of heavenlike reflection by the modern audience. Second it represents the crowd of the Jews or the High Priests. Then it becomes a chaotic canon or fugue on a popular music that wants to express the frenzy of the crowd, to illustrate the famous saying of Jesus : « Forgive them father because they do not know what they are doing ». This crowd is beside themselves, they have lost their selfcontrol. They are irresponsible. Third it may even represent the joy of a modern and popular crowd in front of the realization of the prediction like in « Sei gegrusset, lieber Judenkönig ! ». Finally it also represents the soldiers for example sharing Jesus's clothes. Then it expresses greed and totally unconscious brutality or beastlike cecity. There is no accusation against the Jews. They were manipulated by the high priests, by Pilate, and they also were out of their minds, in other words carrying out God's decision without knowing it. This explains the very strange declaration: « Der Held aus Juda siegt mit Macht, and schliesst den Kampf ». Jesus is a hero, Jesus wins the battle, Jesus conquers power and Jesus ends the fight, which means he gets the world on his side at the very moment of his death. No antisemitism at this moment since the fight is finished, hence there is no reason to fight against the Jews any more. And that's what the « Ruht wohl » means and expresses in a beautiful Tenebrae turned upside down into a lullaby, transforming the descent into darkness of the Tenebrae into an ascent into light of this famous piece of music and singing. Death becomes a desired passage from strife to calm humility and submission to the longed-for liberation and regeneration. In other words Bach is calling for peace on earth, peace and order, in Germany like elsewhere, human reasonable governing of things after the long period of war that is just in the process of coming to a close. Bach is a pacifist and a social peacemaker at the end of an extremely troubled period.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan"

A Bach lover

Michel Couzijn | 11/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's hard to go wrong with Koopman. This is a beautiful recording, with great sensitivity shown in many finely wrought and shaped musical phrases. (By the way, don't buy ANY John Gardiner Bach, they are absurdly too fast in tempi, articulated like a loud ticking clock, and phrases are rarely shaped.) This may be the best available recording of this wonderful work, which has been neglected in the shadow of the St. Matthew Passion. The other fine version is by Karl Ritcher, I believe.
But you will not regret buying this marvelous one."