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The Critical Discographies from Choral Music On Records - Mass in B Minor Pages at the Teri Noel Towe Home Pages


Johann Sebastian Bach


The Critical Discographies from Choral Music On Records


This remarkable photograph is not a computer generated composite; the original of the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment, all that remains of the portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach that belonged to his pupil Johann Christian Kittel, is resting gently on the surface of the original of the 1748 Elias Gottlob Haussmann Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach.

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1748 Elias Gottlob Haussmann Portrait, Courtesy of William H. Scheide, Princeton, New Jersey
Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment, ca. 1733, Artist Unknown, Courtesy of the Weydenhammer Descendants
Photograph by Teri Noel Towe
©Teri Noel Towe, 2001, All Rights Reserved


The Critical Discographies from Choral Music On Records

Mass in B Minor, BWV 232


Mass in B Minor, BWV 232

The Herbert von Karajan Recordings


In 1950, the bicentenary of the death of Sebastian Bach was commemorated by a divided Germany and by a world just beginning to recover from the horrors and devastation of the Second World War. Two live performances of the Mass from that historic year have found their way to commercial recordings.

The first of these performances was given in the Musikvereinsaal in Vienna in 1950, at the International Bach Festival.
[8] It is the first, and the most exhilarating, of four recorded performances of the Mass under the direction of Herbert von Karajan that have so far been released commercially. While by no means competitive with the studio recordings, this fascinating document preserves Karajan's view of the Mass at its most colorful and "operatic". Grand ritards, rich dynamics and expression, powerful interpretations from five world class soloists (including Kathleen Ferrier who otherwise never recorded the alto solos and duets from the Mass in their entirety), and complete commitment from chorus and orchestra (except for a tentative hornist who sounds absolutely terrified in the "Quoniam"!) make this dramatic "Furtwängleresque" reading of the Mass a thrilling listening experience, the wildly variable and often muddy sound not withstanding.

Five years later, Karajan made the first of his two commercial recordings of the Mass.
[9] Once again, the locale was Vienna, but the only "repeater" from the 1950 concert performance is soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who once more acquits herself magnificently in the first soprano's three duets. Marga Höffgen is cool and clear in the alto solos including a particularly slow "Agnus Dei", but Nicolai Gedda sounds strangely uninvolved in the painfully languid "Benedictus". Karajan's interpretation is less operatic and less dramatic than it was five years earlier, but this incisive and persuasive reading remains a satisfying one, one of the best in the "modern" style. Although a monaural recording, the sound is more natural and better focussed than in the later DGG stereo version.

Karajan presented the B Minor Mass at the Salzburg Festival in 1961, and the performance recorded on August 20 of that year for later broadcast was released commercially in Italy in the mid '80s. [10] Again available only in monaural sound, the performance features an especially fine battalion of soloists. Leontyne Price sings the first soprano's music with the power and conviction of a Verdi heroine (or, at least, a soloist in the "Manzoni" Requiem!); Christa Ludwig's molten sound is powerful in the second soprano and alto rôles; and Nicolai Gedda is radiant, sensitive, and effortless in all of the tenor solos, including the "Benedictus". Walter Berry, alas, did not have one of his best days; his singing in the "Quoniam: is mildly tentative and uncommitted; Gérard Souzay's glistening, light baritone is perfect for the "Et in spiritum sanctum", but his diction is at times unpardonably mushy for a lieder singer of his stature. Particularly in the arias and duets, Karajan's tempos to be brisker than in either of the two commercial recordings.

In his second commercial recording of the Mass, published in 1974, Karajan coddles and overinterprets the music.
[11] It is not, however, a case of familiarity breeding contempt; rather, it is a case of sparing the rod and spoiling the child. Karajan's genuine affection and profound empathy for the Mass has begotten an interpretation that is too solicitous, too respectful, and too loving. This impression is reinforced by the sonic aura of the recording, which is blemished by the bizarre artificial sound and balances that infect so many of his later recordings; the chorus is distant within the ensemble, and the strings are peculiarly louder than the brass. The arias are very slow in the main. Christa Ludwig sings with a reserved drama and wonderful secure tone, particularly in the "Agnus Dei", and Peter Schreier responds marvelously to the challenge posed by an incredibly slow tempo in the "Benedictus".

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