Riccardo Nughes wrote (March 25, 2003):
[snip]
Another interesting new release is the SJP (BWV 245) on Naxos, featuring a treble as soprano (IIRC the only precedent is the Gillesberger/Harnoncourt(?) recording on Teldec.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
St. John Passion
Joe Littlewood (treble)
James Bowman (countertenor)
James Gilchrist (tenor)
Matthew Beale (tenor)
John Bernays (bass)
Eamonn Dougan (bass)
Colin Baldy (bass)
Choir of New College, Oxford/ Edward Higginbottom
This month Naxos is proud to present a magnificent new recording of Bach's St. John Passion, performed with immense confidence and ability by the best-selling Cathedral/Collegiate choir in the world, New College Oxford, under the indefatigable leadership of Edward Higginbottom. A superb line-up of soloists and accompaniment by period instruments further underlines a production of such calibre that a re-assessment of best-available versions seems likely. Despite the likely historical authenticity of performing the work with trebles, cathedral choirs have rarely proved as technically assured as sopranos on the top line. With this performance, New College Oxford firmly bury that myth by producing a thrilling performance, in perfectly captured sound, which combines both historical authenticity and thrilling musicianship. The choir's contribution to musical life in the UK down the years is further underlined by the choice of soloists - James Gilchrist and James Bowman amongst them - who are all former members of the choir, with the exception of the soprano arias, performed by a current chorister. With the choir's ongoing high profile combined with the label's well-documented strengths in distribution, PR and marketing, the stage looks set fair for another massive and long-term Naxos success in core repertoire.
Naxos 2CDs 8557269-97
(source : www.mdt.co.uk )

SJP from Higginbotham and Naxos

Piotr Jaworski wrote (April 1, 2003):
Naxos announced the new recording of St. John Passion (8.557296-97).
Edward Higginbottom conducts the Choir of New College Oxford and Collegium Novum.

I paste below the whole description of this recording as published on the Naxos website - reading what EH has to say about this undertaking - we probably have another - after McCreesh - Passion recording "breaking the lines of entrenched tradition" ;-)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

St John Passion, BWV 245

Bach outlived himself. At the time of his death in 1750 he was regarded by an ever-increasing number of people as yesterday's man, a brilliant, awe-inspiring, if rather turgid anachronism, out of touch with the spirit of his time. Simplicity was in, complexity was out. Only three years after Bach's death, the French philosopher and self-styled composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau swept aside with a stupefying arrogance everything Bach had stood for:

'Fugues, imitations, double designs, and all complex contrapuntal structures ... these are arbitrary and purely conventional devices which have hardly any merit save that of a difficulty overcome - difficult sillinesses which the ear cannot endure and reason cannot justify. They are evidently the remains of barbarism and bad taste, that only persist, like the portals of our Gothic churches, to the shame of those who have had the patience to construct them.'

Four years after that was written, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg. Bach's music played no part in his upbringing. He may not even have known of his existence. Johann Christian Bach he knew. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach he knew of. But Johann Sebastian? He might have heard him mentioned in passing as their father, but it could well be that Johann Christian, Bach's youngest son, never thought even to mention him. It was not until he was at the height of his career that Mozart first came across the music of Johann Sebastian, and it changed his life.

It has changed the life of many, by no means all, or even most, of them musicians. The universality of experience reflected in Bach's music far transcends his own profound religious faith. Yet in one sense, and one only, his faith was his sole limitation as a chronicler of humanity's inner life: it barred him from despair. He was no stranger to suffering, but taken as a whole his music is suffused by joy, and of a profundity beyond the limits of mere happiness. No composer's music is so deeply imbued with the spirit and styles of dance, and his spirituality was matched, and complemented, by his robust physicality. There are dances aplenty even in a work as awesomely serious and harrowing as the St John Passion, which ends with a sarabande). Yet there is scarcely a work of his, however slight, however light, that is not consecrated in spirit to the glory of God. His overtly sacred works give us perhaps the most comprehensive portrait of religious experience ever achieved.

Bach wrote four Passion settings, one for each of the gospel writers. Of these, only two, the St John and the St Matthew, have survived in their entirety, but the 'entirety' of the St John Passion is difficult to determine, since Bach made four different versions of it, over a span of almost 25 years. Of these, interestingly, the last reverts very largely to the first, though using larger forces and a greater variety of instruments. The apportionment of rôles, however, is common to all. A solo tenor, taking the part of the Evangelist, serves as the narrator, the individual protagoare sung by soloists, and the words of groups of people, whether portraying the crowd, commenting on the action or reflecting on its significance, are naturally taken by the choir.

The St Matthew and St John Passions have always aroused controversy, though Bach can hardly have been surprised. One of the requirements of his job as Cantor of the St Thomas School in Leipzig was that he should "so arrange the church music that it shall not be too long, or of such a nature as to have an operatic character." In each work, Bach offended on both counts. The St John Passion runs to nearly two hours, the St Matthew to almost three, and each uses operatic conventions, if not operatic styles. With their recitatives, arias and choruses, with the soloists taking specific 'rôles', both works have struck many people, in Bach's time and even in our own, as too operatic by half. And the St John Passion is so vividly and unashamedly dramatic in its imagery, layout and styles that Bach seems almost to have been courting the controversy which it so predictably aroused. Certainly no opera (let us refine that to the music of no opera) is more searingly dramatic or more masterfully coloured. Nor is it easy to think of any work, operatic or otherwise, in which the word-painting, the milking of language itself for its dramatic and illustrative properties, is more powerful, even terrifying. The repeated baying of the mob Kreuzige ihn! (Crucify him!), the hatred with which they shout the name of their chosen victim, Jesum von Nazareth!, the bloodthirsty fanaticism as they cry out Barabbas!, all of these are almost unbearable in the intensity and vividness of their presentation. They also far exceed the dramatic scope and theatrical flare of all Baroque opera composers, including even Monteverdi.

But the St John Passion is not an opera. It is an overwhelming act of worship, specifically designed for the Vesper service on Good Friday, where a sermon separated Parts I and II. Among the most striking differences between the St John Passion and an opera is Bach's clear intention of drawing the congregation into the drama, most notably through his placement throughout the work of well-known chorales (which would have been familiar to every worshipper in the Lutheran tradition), rather than treating it as an audience of passive 'spectators'. Being manifestly a feature of the present (for the congregation), the use of these chorales serves also to highlight the eternal relevance of the historical events being depicted to the faith and ethos of the modern believer. A further instance of the same impulse is the treatment of Christ's words. Whereas in the St Matthew Passion these are accompanied and illumined by what has been described as a 'halo of strings', in the St John Passion they are not only represented as ordinary human speech but supported by continuo alone. The effect of this, conforming to the treatment of every other character in the drama and thus blurring the distinction between Jesus and the rest, is to emphasize Christ's humanity and to underline the very human tragedy of his sufferings. To say that the work is less formally devotional, less meditative, less reflective than the St Matthew Passion is not to say that it is in any sense less religious. The resonance of faith is incandescent throughout, but it derives its particular quality from the perspective of St John's text, which differs in many respects from St Matthew's (not least in the virulence of its anti-semitism -- a feature, incidentally, which would strongly have appealed to Luther).

In terms both of numbers and of instrumental colour, Bach clearly conceived the work for larger and more variegated forces than were normally available to him. The use of two keyboard instruments for the continuo (harpsichord and organ) and the importation of such outmoded interlopers as violas d'amore, viola da gamba and lute, as well as transverse flutes, also indicate the degree to which he drew on specific types of sonority for the reflection and amplification of differing moods and circumstances. But then the immensity and power of the story he was telling demanded nothing less.

Jeremy Siepmann

Conductor's Introduction

There are two things to say about this performance of the St John Passion. They are linked. First, it is a celebration of the strength and vitality of the choral tradition at New College. All the vocal parts are sung by present and former members of the choir. The second is that the performance can aspire to a level of authenticity almost entirely absent in other recordings. Like Bach, we use boys' voices. Furthermore, our performance has much in common with Bach's Leipzig circumstances, where a Protestant church had close links with the university, and where the coming together of the two furnished Bach with his musical and liturgical forces. With regard to another authenticity matter, I do not ignore the evidence for single strings and voices in Bach performance, but the evidence also points to the use of ripienists, employed in the numbers an institution might be able and wish to provide. There are plenty of historical precedents for institutions using the numbers they had to hand, and provided Bach's counterpoint is clear, there can be no objection. These are my reasons for adding a New College St John Passion to the discography, believing that the performance is distinctive in crucial respects.

Edward Higginbottom

Matthew Westphal wrote (April 1, 2003):
Edward Higginbottom says (and thanks to Piotr for sending it):
>>> With regard to another authenticity matter, I do not ignore the evidence for single strings and voices in Bach performance, but the evidence also points to the use of ripienists, employed in the numbers an institution might be able and wish to provide. <<<
Well, the evidence forwith respect to Bach points to the ripienists in the SJP and about a dozen other works. And in those cases, the numbers the institution might be able and wish to provide seem to be two voices per part (and not even all the way through all of those works -- see BWV 21 -- though the SJP calls for ripienists throughout all the choruses).

>>> There are plenty of historical precedents for institutions using the numbers they had to hand <<<
Yes, but does the use of extra musicians properly represent the composer's intentions? (Does that particular issue matter? Opinions on this differ, as they should.)

>>> and provided Bach's counterpoint is clear, there can be no objection. <<<
I've always found "there can be no objection" to be a weak or lazy tactic of argument. Someone can always object, and that objection is often legitimate (if not decisive).

In the particular case of the St. John Passion, I've heard two 2VPP recordings (Taverner groups/Parrott and Smithsonian Chamber Players/Slowik) and two live 2VPP performances (New York Collegium/Parrott and Gabrieli groups/McCreesh) -- and I don't find the sound or the balance to be much different from that of "traditional HIP" performances such as Collegium Vocale/Herreweghe and BCJ/Suzuki.

Teseo wrote (November 8, 2003):
Piotr Jaworski wrote: < we probably have another - after McCreesh - Passion recording "breaking the lines of entrenched tradition" ;-) >
Not precisely so... For those wishing to have an all-male-voices recording of the SJP this is a fine one, however it is not exceptional, I would not rate it among the best SJP recordings I know.

Higginbottom SJP

Eric Bergerud wrote (October 31, 2006):
Finally got my copy of the SJP by the New College Choir and a pick-up group of good British musicians "Collegium Novum." To the best of my knowledge this is the only all male choir version outside of Leonhardt/Harnoncourt. It is period instrument and done with small forces but not OVPP. I'm not very familiar with the soloists: James Gilchrist, John Bernays and Eamonn Dougan. The head chorister at the time sings soprano.

Always a delight to listen to the SJP. One forgets how "short" it is but I'd rank some of it musically with Bach's very best. As for this performance (beyond the Naxos price tag) I don't know what say. One finds more polish elsewhere I guess. But the boys are front and center in the chorus and it does give the work a different sound, often wonderfully so. And the soprano is sometimes up to it and maybe sometimes not. Anyway, if one doesn't have a male choir version, I'd certainly give it a thumbs up. A work this good is worth differing looks (or sounds) and removing females and replacing them with boys certainly does that. To my humble ears the instrumentalists do a fine job. I don't think Britain has a major shortage of good players.

Tom Dent wrote (November 1, 2006):
[To Eric Bergerud] I listened to this a couple of times... I was at New College for 4 years, knew Mr Dougan (role of Pilate) and heard Bernay, Baldy and Beale singing in chapel services.

It is very good value for money, but I had a couple of reservations. On high-end hi-fi equipment you can hear the rather bright ringing acoustic of the chapel (a long narrow stone box), which is perfect for slower-moving choir works but tends to leave a slightly harsh echo behind certain voices. Beale's German is not good. The booklet makes exaggerated claims for the novelty of all-male vocal cast (they don't know, or don't say, that Gillesberger did it first). And the ritornello of the final chorus was phrased in a deliberately 'different' way which soon became stereotyped.

All in all, this is a pretty small collection of gripes. Unlikely to be a better one at bargain price.

Ed Myskowski wrote (November 1, 2006):
Tom Dent wrote:
< All in all, this is a pretty small collection of gripes. Unlikely to be a better one at bargain price. >
A perfect conclusion for a concise review, setting a nice example. Give us the gripes, put them in context.

Yoël L. Arbeitman wrote (November 1, 2006):
Tom Dent wrote:
< Beale's German is not good. The booklet makes exaggerated claims for the novelty of all-male vocal cast (they don't know, or don't say, that Gillesberger did it first). And the ritornello of the final chorus was phrased in a deliberately 'different' way which soon became stereotyped.
All in all, this is a pretty small collection of gripes. Unlikely to be a better one at bargain price >
Let's see: Someone's German is not good and in the same sentence that you state that this is a small collection of gripes. Then you have the effrontery to mention Gillesberger.
Whew.
I mean like that's a unique performance and will always remain one. Why collect junk?

Yoël L. Arbeitman wrote (November 1, 2006):
[To Ed Myskowski]
What Ed is the context? That it's cheap? Does one need a cheap recording of a major great work?
In my opinion IF one is to have few recordings of great works, let them be great performances.
We all of course have different definitions but I don't see the Naxos price as being mitigating at all.
Junk is junk.
Anyone about to bash anyone in this pub-bar? I mean besides the usual game of the combatants that goes on forever. Snooze!

Ed Myskowski wrote (November 1, 2006):
Yoël L. Arbeitman wrote
< In my opinion IF one is to have few recordings of great works, let them be great performances. >
On the other hand, if one is looking for a first (or supplemental) recording of a great work, with a limited budget, this might be a very helpful review for evaluating options

In this particular case I am not. Nor do I know the performance in question.. I just happened to like the format, especially the placing of gripes in an overall context. How many reviews consist of an accumulation of unsatisfactory details, with little more said? That can be useful, but it does require getting some experience with the reviewer.

Eric Bergerud wrote (November 1, 2006):
Higginbottom SJP & SACD

[To Yoël L. Arbeitman] Maybe I missed something here. Isn't it the point on our age that music fans would have multiple copies of major works? I have five SJPs and at least as many of the other major Bach choral works. (It's actually saved me money I guess. A few years back I was collecting operas, which exceed in vast numbers the big Bach works. I've found I can live with one Norma.) I certainly agree that it is well worth the investment for get a fine performance of a great work.

Yet because I lack serious musical training and perhaps have a tin ear, I find it very difficult to recognize immediately greatness. What I do recognize is difference. I don't have a huge number of SJP's, and I've never found a copy of Harnoncourt's old one. So Higgenbottom's is my only version with a male choir. Is it better than Gardiner's? I don't think so. But it certainly sounds different and the work sounds different because the conductors made what strikes me as perfectly sound musical choices. I like them both, and I do listen to them. (Xmas is coming: that means what: maybe five Messiah's and now six Xmas Oratorios. One could suffer a worse fate. Just won't try it on one day.) I don't think it's bad that Naxos is rapidly moving toward period instrument performances - I've liked almost all of them. And perhaps lower price tags aren't so dumb. Perhaps we can get a cheap Bach edition, but the high baroque is a treasure chest just waiting to be opened, and it might be opened quicker at $7 per disc than $20.

Yoel speaks of musical calamities. I am a little uncertain how to take his recommendations. I have found that operas he's trashed, I thought were pretty bad. I agree, with Yoel, that most DVD's don't deliver what they could. But plodders like myself are quite reluctant to likewise trash Bach choral works. I admit immediately that I can not judge "classic" performances. The oldest Bach work I have is Kilpatrick's Art of the Fugue on Chlavichord and I like it. Beyond that, I have the some Dreseden/Leipzig performances from the 60s-70s and a few Richters. Everything else comes from the usual suspects: Gardiner, Harnoncourt, Leonhardt, Parrott, Koopman and (yup and no excuses) Leusink. You could add another dozen performers if one counted them all. But almost all are period instrument, and post 1970. And I have had heard nothing from earlier masters that leads me to believe Bach listeners are marching backward. Quite the contrary: in terms of recordings we live, for the moment, in a golden age.

BTW: A little Minnesota chauvinism. The BIS Minnesota Beethoven series I suppose is not something I'd recommend for the casual listener. However, the extraordinary reviews the series has received have been vindicated by my listening of the 9th and 3d. (The 5th , 4th and 8th must simply reside as among the very best available anywhere.) That said, both works combine extremely good performances with a technology that is indeed a step up. The 9th's choral movement had my jaw dropping. I have a very good 2 channel stereo and a respectable multi-channel. (The two systems are completely different and reside across the house.) One thing that is becoming obvious is that if one is interested in SACD, you need a system that will play it (DVD/CD player and reciever). However, a good system for movies - the norm in "home theater" - isn't necessarily what you want for SACD. The ideal SACD system (which I don't have) probably would have four equally good speakers and a center speaker of not only the same quality but perhaps the same make. A home theater system starts with (in real terms, not what's sold by garbage sales) a high quality center speaker that handles dialogue. The left/right handle most of the sound. The "surround" handle the movement of sound, giving it depth. There are also sub-woofers: big bass boosters and no doubt essential for the normal trash sold to customers because their speakers are the size of a deck of cards. In other words, there is a relative hierarchy of sound: center (dialogue); left/right (most sound) left/right surround (peripheral sound and "moving sound). The six and seven channel systems for home theater simply expand the equation. Is anything lost between a 2.1 Dolby (two channels, a center speaker and a sub woofer) and a 7.1? Yes, but if and only if one spends a ton of money on excellent electronics and speakers. In practice, the 5.1 system will remain the real world standard for a long time. That means a censpeaker, two left/right, and two surround left/right and - if you wish a sub-woofer. I've heard some passive sub-woofers that didn't make me want to move to Cambodia. Active (ie powered: you plug them in and they have their own amps) sub-woofers do give spectacular effects in special effects movies, but, in my opinion, it's too much for any music and actually pretty bad for movies.

The multi-channel issue I think does impact Bach lovers. SACD titles are growing. More importantly, DVD versions of Bach choral works exist in large numbers. If one does it right, the improvement in sound is very significant. Most DVDs have standard mult-channel sound. That's pretty good if you have multi-channels. And even if Yoel, and others, are right, that the video of Bach DVD's leaves something to be desired, let's not forget that one can run the DVD - get five channels of sound - and not look at anything. Anyway, the new sound formats are not frauds, they can be accessed with very little money spent, but you better know what you're doing.

Bradley Lehman wrote (November 1, 2006):
< Finally got my copy of the SJP by the New College Choir and a pick-up group of good British musicians "Collegium Novum." To the best of my knowledge this is the only all male choir version outside of Leonhardt/Harnoncourt. >
[i.e. the 1971 Harnoncourt/Gillesberger...]

Maybe so; but there's also the Cleobury/Goodman performance that fails the "all male" cast technicality only by having Catherine Bott sing arias. Every other singer there is male. 1996 recording. This is the one that's in the newest Brilliant Classics 155-CD set. (Same excellent performance I'd already bought twice before on other labels; oh well!)

Interestingly, at least to me: this recording's producer was Tini Mathot (=Mrs Koopman, and Koopman's regular producer), but Koopman wasn't involved here as performer. They have two other guys playing the organs. Among the listed orchestral players, the women outnumber the men, but does that count?

Similarly, Leusink's 2001 recording had just one female singer, Marjon Strijk.

Tom Dent wrote (November 2, 2006):
Tom Dent wrote:
<< Beale's German is not good. The booklet makes exaggerated claims for the novelty of all-male vocal cast (they don't know, or don't say, that Gillesberger did it first). And the ritornello of the final chorus was phrased in a deliberately 'different' way which soon became stereotyped.
All in all, this is a pretty small collection of gripes. Unlikely to be a better one at bargain price >>
Yoël L. Arbeitman wrote:
< Let's see: Someone's German is not good and in the same sentence that you state that this is a small collection of gripes. Then you have the effrontery to mention Gillesberger. Whew. I mean like that's a unique performance and will always remain one. Why collect junk? >
er, because 1) Higginbottom is not junk; 2) every currently available recording has its faults; and 3) Gillesberger is not available, either at bargain or any other price, through commercial outlets.

(correct me if I'm wrong there?)

Saint John Passion, Spitalfields Festival, London

Francis Browne wrote (June 22, 2009):
I had the good fortune to attend an exceptional performance of the St John Passion last week.It was exceptional both because of the setting -the Church of Christ Church Spitalfields in London, built by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1729 -and because of the performers, students from the Royal College of Music and so some of our most talented and promising musicians for the future. The performance was conducted by Edward Higginbotham who has an excellent recording of the SJP to his credit on Naxos label. He was able to draw expressive and well-disciplined playing and singing from the students.

The evangelist was Peter Davoren a graduate student. A brisk pace was set for the recitatives which gave at best a sense of urgency but occasionally resulted in rather garbled delivery. However when the text and Bach’s setting demanded something more he rose well to the occasion. This is a singer of great potential and of whom we shall hear more .

David Shipley, who sang the role of Christ, looked like a tall choirboy 17 years old, so that the striking rich bass voice he was able to produce was a surprise. He sang what is ademanding role generally well but in later years will be able to bring greater variety and expression to such roles.

To give as many students as possible experience of singing before a large audience, members of the excellent choir each sang one of the 10 arias. It was noticeable that most singers began somewhat tentatively but sang with more expression and confidence in the da capo sections of their aria. The arias do vary greatly in difficulty so that the soprano who sang the joyful aria “Ich folge dir gleichfalls” had a much easier task than the counter-tenor who tackled “Es ist vollbracht”, music whose emotional weight tests the most experienced singers.But there was much fine singing and some of these students will undoubtedly go on make a name for themselves.

As a choir they sang excellently throughout, with the text of each chorale and chorus evidently sensitively considered and delivered appropriately. I was particularly impressed by the magnificent opening and concluding choruses, and by the effective expression they brought to the hysterical utterances of the bloodthirsty crowd at the beginning of the second part.

The orchestral playing was excellent throughout and those with solo accompanying parts rose well to the challenge.I was particularly impressed by the two flautists and the viola da gamba player

As a whole this was a gripping and memorable performance of the Saint John Passion.There is often I suspect a general tendency to regard this work as a poor relation of the SMP but with a good performance such as this the impact is overwhelming. In the days when I used to attend concerts more frequently my private criterion for judging the success of the musicmaking was how far it held my attention so that the normal succession of time was abolished. Here I was so absorbed that at the conclusion of the magnificent final chorale I was astonished that more than two hours had passed.

My only personal disappointment was that though I was asked for and gave permission for my translation to be used no text was in fact provided so that there was the curious experience of programme sellers warning people not to buy the programme.A puzzling business , but I am glad it led me to hear this performance.

Edward Higginbottom: Short Biography | Choir of New College Oxford | Recordings of Vocal Works | BWV 245 - E. Higginbottom