Bach Collegium Japan / Masaaki Suzuki BACH St. John Passion

ST JOHN PASSION

Bach Collegium Japan / Masaaki Suzuki BACH St. Matthew Passion

ST MATTHEW PASSION

Bach Collegium Japan / Masato Suzuki JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Concertos for harpsichord & Strings

CONCERTOS FOR HARPSICHORD & STRINGS

Masato Suzuki / Masaaki Suzuki / Bach Collegium Japan J.S. BACH Concertos for Two Harpsichords

CONCERTOS FOR TWO HARPSICHORDS

Bach Collegium Japan / Masaaki Suzuki BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9

SYMPHONY No. 9

Bach Collegium Japan / Masaaki Suzuki / Masato Suzuki VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST

Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki have sung of the wonders of Christmas a number of times, in Bach’s cantatas and Christmas Oratorio as well as in Handel’s Messiah. Here, instead, we hear the choir a cappella in a selection of classic Christmas carols. Masato Suzuki, son of the ensemble’s founder and director, has selected some of the best-loved songs of Christmas, such as Adeste fideles and Silent Night, as well as less familiar hymns, arranging them especially for these singers. A consummate organist, he also performs a number of Louis-Claude Daquin’s noëls variés – keyboard variations on Christmas songs which became a highly popular genre in 18th-century France.

Bach Collegium Japan / Masaaki Suzuki MOZART Great Mass in C minor

Period-instrument C minor Masses get better and better. The bar was set in the mid 1980s by Gardiner and Hogwood, then raised in the new millennium by the likes of McCreesh, Krivine and Langrée. This new recording from Japan, which joins Suzuki’s scholarly and startling Requiem, is fully worthy to join them. Reviewing the Requiem (1/15), I was disappointed that the acoustic and engineering blurred the inner voices, obliterating Mozart’s (or Süssmayr’s, Eybler’s or Suzuki Jnr’s) counterpoint. Here that problem is largely avoided in a similarly grand acoustic: that, and the fact that the C minor Mass is a far more vocally orientated piece than the Requiem.

The choir are well drilled and the two female soloists are matched as well as any on disc (see my Collection on the work, 6/13). Carolyn Sampson takes the bulk of the soprano solos (the ‘Laudamus’ is taken by the second soprano, Olivia Vermeulen, as is traditional) and does so with the lithe coloratura, rich, silky tone and innate identification with this music familiar from her sacred Mozart collection with The King’s Consort (Hyperion, 5/06), and intertwines memorably with Olivia Vermeulen in the duet and trio of the Gloria. Suzuki is no speed merchant (a full minute slower than Langrée in the Kyrie, for example), and maintains the through line in more strenuous movements such as the ‘Qui tollis’ and the ‘Cum Sancto Spiritu’ fugue that closes the Gloria. He takes his time especially in the ‘Et incarnatus est’, its beautiful pastoral scene spun out mesmerisingly by Sampson.

The edition used of this tantalisingly incomplete work is that by Franz Beyer, published in 1989. There is nothing here to discombobulate the general listener; however, those for whom such matters are important will wish to know that there are no (editorial) trumpets in the ‘Credo’ or horns in the ‘Incarnatus’, whose new string parts are perhaps more active than those in the more usual HC Robbins Landon completion. (Beyer also contrived an Agnus Dei from the music of the Kyrie but that is not recorded here.) As the only other recording of this edition is Harnoncourt’s, whose peculiar balance between voices and instruments is a sticking point, it is worthwhile to hear Beyer’s work on this disc.

Sampson is once again the soloist in the popular Exsultate, jubilate, the treat here being a parallel recording of the opening aria in the ‘Salzburg’ version, which boasts a different text and flutes instead of oboes. As a package, the disc as a whole is certainly a winner; the Mass easily ranks alongside the period-instrument benchmarks. (David Threasher / Gramophone)

Bach Collegium Japan / Masaaki Suzuki MOZART Requiem

Masaaki Suzuki’s recording of Mozart’s incomplete Requiem is based on a new edition of the score by his son, the harpsichordist and organist Masato Suzuki. Those familiar with the regularly performed Süssmayr version will notice a couple of important changes – though to spot the others they may have to follow a score carefully.

Mozart’s assistant Franz Süssmayr was given the task of completing the Requiem following the great composer’s death. But Joseph Eybler – a musician Mozart apparently admired – had already made some interventions which Suzuki generally prefers to Süssmayr’s; in other places he has corrected some of the faulty writing for which Süssmayr has long been criticised. More noticeably, he adds a fugal Amen chorus to the Lacrimosa, based on a genuine sketch discovered in Berlin in 1960. He also follows the first edition of the score (1800) in allotting the great majority of the trombone part of the Tuba mirum – all but the first phrase in fact – to the bassoon, though this version is only included as an appendix.

Such details aside, the performance is notable for its super-clean orchestral edges and refinement – taken to such an extent that the result can feel distanced, however perfectly articulated. The soloists – a perfectly matched quartet – follow this approach to the point of sounding a little bloodless, not helped by the resonant acoustic, which creates a hazy impression. The Solemn Vespers are again of a piece, neat and perfectly efficient, but a little cool nevertheless, even in Carolyn Sampson’s direct Laudate Dominum. (George Hall)

Bach Collegium Japan / Masaaki Suzuki BEETHOVEN Missa Solemnis

Beethoven began composing the Missa solemnis in 1819, when he learned that his patron (and pupil) Archduke Rudolph was going to be appointed Cardinal Archbishop of Olmütz. The plan was for the mass to be ready for performance at the enthronement celebrations in March 1820, but one year proved to be too little time. It wasn’t until almost three years later, in January 1823, that Beethoven was able to complete the work. 

As might be expected, it was unparalleled in every respect – although composed for use during church services, even Beethoven’s contemporaries found that it exceeded the bounds of the genre. Beethoven himself was quite aware of both the dimensions and the importance of the work: in a letter he described it as ‘my greatest work’. It is also a work which over its course encompasses great contrasts: from the solemnity of the Kyrie and the intense excitement at the opening of the Gloria to the disturbing intimations of war during the closing Dona nobis pacem. 

Originally founded with the aim of performing the choral works of Bach, the Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki are now taking another great leap, after their recent release of Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor. Described as ‘refreshingly open-hearted, spontaneous and natural’ their interpretation received a 2017 Gramophone Award. Joined by an eminent quartet of vocal soloists, the team now applies its expertise in period performance to Beethoven’s masterpiece.