Bach Motets – Motets by JC Bach and JS Bach
Solomon’s Knot
Prospero Classical PROSP0073 91:00 mins (2 discs)
How to perform Bach’s motets has long been a hot potato. We know that Bach sometimes doubled the vocal strands with instruments. On the other hand an accompaniment of keyboard and string bass instruments was widely practised and that is what is favoured here. Only one of the motets, O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, where instruments play an indispensable role, is omitted while another, Der Geist hilft omits Bach’s colla parte string and woodwind parts.
The thoughtfully constructed programme by Solomon’s Knot further includes four motets by Bach’s father’s cousin Johann Christoph, and it was a happy decision to juxtapose the music of these two family members. The performances by this talented group of singers, eight in all to accommodate the generally called for eight-voice double choir, are sensitive to textual and musical detail. The reiterated ‘bösen’ (wicked) at the conclusion of Johann Christoph’s Der Gerechte provides but one instance. For the most part intonation is secure and textures evenly balanced. I detected a few insecurities but they are a small price to pay for a transcendently beautiful reading of Jesu, meine Freude (BWV 227). Elsewhere, the vocal declamation is full of character and the continuo support where called for of Jan Zahourek (violone) and Pawel Siwczak is stylish, though perhaps on occasion a little too discreet.
Recorded sound is clear with ideal resonance and the handsomely produced booklet contains full texts in German, English and French as well as an excellent essay by Stephen Rose. A fatuous description of the performances by a branch of the press as ‘a serious kick up the baroque backside’ does nobody any favours. Nicholas Anderson