Two new Christmas Oratorio recordings in time for Christmas, and
both from forces that give regular concert presentations of the piece,
one at St Thomas’s Church, Leipzig, and the other at St John’s Smith
Square in London. As such they are not greatly challenging to ‘normal’
expectations, but then that is the point: what you get here are good,
sound performances that will not upset anyone and will surely give
pleasure to most who hear them.
I mean that about not upsetting
anyone: not so long ago a recording of this music by the 84-strong
Leipzig Thomanerchor and the Gewandhaus Orchestra would have stayed many
a buying hand, but things are different now. Germany has become the
place where ‘modern-instrument’ orchestras play Baroque music best; and,
except for a slight blandness in the continuo, the once-stodgy
Gewandhaus’s grasp of current Baroque stylistic orthodoxy under
Thomas cantor Biller seems total, while their technical ease
(particularly in the brass) is a genuine enhancement. As for the
Thomanerchor, the relevance to listeners of its tradition as ‘Bach’s
choir’ is probably more romantic than realistic but the thrill of it is
still there and can perhaps be detected in a recording at least partly
made at live concerts in St Thomas’s. What we can say is that they have a
typically fruity German boy sound, never seem like 84 singers (in a
good way), and, despite strong underlying discipline, seem able to enjoy
the more joyous moments with true enthusiasm. Except for the tenderly
comforting Ingeborg Danz, the soloists (including two boy sopranos) are
adequate without offering any particular insights.
Older, though
not by all that much, are the 38 mixed voices of Trinity College Choir,
again very well trained, especially in matters of firm text enunciation.
They are less raw in the lower voices, more focused overall than the
Thomaners and more agile, too, in numbers such as ‘Ehre sei Gott’ or the
opening of Part 5. The soloist line-up here is in general superior both
technically and interpretatively, especially the ever-incisive James
Gilchrist. Newcomer Katherine Watson’s fresh-voiced sound is a world
away from the Leipzig boys but lestyn Davies’s impressive messa di voce
in ‘Schlafe, mein Liebster’ is not the start of a performance to match
the protective warmth of Danz. If not quite at its best, the Orchestra
of the Age of Enlightenment sounds thoroughly at home (David Blackadder
gives a very suave trumpet solo in ‘Grosser Herr’), and Stephen Layton
conducts with care and expertise. But of the two recordings it is
somehow the Leipzig one that has that little bit more heart. (Gramophone)
