Search - Stockholm Bach Choir, Cmw, Harnoncourt :: Motets: Bach 2000

Harnoncourt's Finest Hour, and Teldec's

Timothy Dougal | Madison, Wi United States | 01/16/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Despite having gone through hundreds of recordings in my life, only three Teldec recordings have stayed in my collection, and two of those are by Nikolas Harnoncourt. One of these, "Don Giovanni" highlights, falls in the "good enough" category. The other, this recording of the Bach Motets, falls into the "as good as it gets" category, and I have often wondered why its virtues are not imitated on other discs.It would be impossible to overpraise this recording. The Stockholm Bach-Choir is small and exceedingly supple in its singing, and the performance is delicately nuanced in its fine attention to the details and potentials in the music. The counterpoint is so clear and the layers of effects so transparent that at times it seems unbelievable that all that you hear could really be in there. Somehow, at various times, the singers manage to suggest that they are a pipe organ or symphony orchestra!
And overall, the performance has a warmth and loveliness that I don't ordinarily associate with Harnoncourt. The sound is superb and spacious, revealing no annoying noises no matter what I listen to the disc on."