Bach - St. John Passion / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan

Starring:Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
One of the greatest musical treatments of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ receives a performance that is musically precise and stylistically close to what we now know of Bach's ideals. Western classical music is becoming more and more the property of musicians and audiences in the Far East, and this performance shows that it is in good hands. The participants are all specialists, including the Japanese orchestra, which plays on period instruments, and their work meets the highest international standards. Masaaki Suzuki, who conducts and plays the harpsichord, is a complete and thorough musician, deeply involved in the emotional overtones of the music as well as technical questions of tempo, balance, and phrasing. His vision comes to terms with the full complexity of the music. His soloists are all excellent, with particularly notable work by Gerd Tuerck as the Evangelist and Robin Blaze in the alto arias. --Joe McLellan
Description
The choir and the orchestra of the Bach Collegium Japan, stars among the celebrated baroque specialists, perform the "St. John Passion" with only a small ensemble of about 50 musicians (as was the custom in Bach's day) under the former Ton Koopman-student Masaaki Suzuki. Soloists: Gerd Tuerck, Stephan MacLeod, Chiyuki Urano, Miduri Suzuki, and Robin Blaze.

Bach - St. John Passion / Midori Suzuki, Robin Blaze, Gerd Turk, Chiyuki Urano, Stephan MacLeod, Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan, Tokyo
Average customer rating:

Good

One for the ages...

A Performance Worthy of the Work

As of May 2006 the Best DVD of the St. John Passion

Bach - St. John Passion / Midori Suzuki, Robin Blaze, Gerd Turk, Chiyuki Urano, Stephan MacLeod, Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan, Tokyo
Starring: Suntory Hall
Manufacturer: Euroarts
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Release Date: 2006-03-21

Customer Reviews:

Good.......2007-05-23

I enjoyed very much listening to the choir and liked the overall result. However, I expected to have more from the soloists. The result is good.

One for the ages..........2007-04-08

If you have the patience to let it work, this performance will pierce your heart with its solemn beauty. As distant and alien as Bach's music sounds to ears accustomed to being assaulted by "rap" and other aural garbage, it lifts the listener to the realm where Christ's sacrifice becomes intensely personal, yet magnificently universal. For those not familiar with the work, it tells the story of Christ's passion and death, interweaving texts directly from the Gospel of John, sung by soloists representing each part, with choral texts reflecting man's response to this wondrous yet heart-breaking tale. The result is a timeless masterpiece capable of moving the heart of even the most faithless and cynical. The scaled down forces in this performance make for a wonderful transparency to the sound. Each soloist brings just the right degree of personal identification with his or her part. And thankfully, the English subtitles make every word count.

If at this Easter season, you seek something less brutal, yet no less profound in its directness and impact than Mel Gibson's Passion, Bach will not let you down.

A Performance Worthy of the Work.......2006-10-02

Having erased several false starts at a review, let me just say that this DVD represents something far more profound than a first-rate performance of Bach's St. John Passion. Watching it, I can't help but ponder the fact that a group of dedicated Japanese artists have so successfully devoted themselves to performance of (to their culture) an utterly foreign work close to 300 years old. Such is the power of Bach and his message.

From the initial bars of the opening chorus--this version incorporating the more familiar "Herr, Unser Herrscher" chorus deleted in a later revision--one immediately realizes that the voices are clear and powerful, the musicians as close to flawless as one could wish, and Suzuki's interpretation does nothing to distract from the power of the original text. I particularly appreciated the confident tempo--perhaps because I first encountered John Gardiner's performance I have come to appreciate what I now understand to be a somewhat faster tempo.

Whenever I pick up a new version of the St. John, I first listen to the opening chorus and then I turn to "Mein teurer Heiland" as I have found that any flaw in the performance is usually magnified in this aria. Here the organ and cello are perfectly balanced, the soloist is excellent (they are all excllent) and is capably supported by the choir. The balance is exceptional--whether or not a debt is owed to the quality of the recording technicians--this is clearly a group that knows how to work together.

Finally, this DVD is a must purchase because of the respect done by the videographer to the work itself; videographically, this work is the finest such recording I have encountered. There are no distracting cutaways, the soloists and director are appropriately highlighted without annoying closeups or other "artistic" flourishes that have crept into other such works. Not only does DVD format allow for additional audio channels, the visual dimension of the performance is becoming increasingly relevant. To my wife's dismay, I have now realized that the time has come to start repurchasing my favorite works.

As of May 2006 the Best DVD of the St. John Passion.......2006-05-25

This performance, filmed in Tokyo's Suntory Hall in 2000, has previously been available (also from Euroarts, but with different packaging) and is still for sale here at Amazon. However, this Euroarts release is slightly cheaper than the earlier issue. I have not seen/heard the other issue and cannot compare them, but it is clear from the identifying information that this is indeed the same performance, so any differences between that one and this DVD would have to take into account such things as picture and sound quality. And I certainly have no complaint about those aspects of this release. The sound, in PCM Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1, is clear as a bell. The filming is simple and is closely geared to Bach's score -- no dizzying intercutting or changing viewpoint just for the sake of doing so.

The Collegium Musicum Japan led by Masaaki Suzuki have in recent years become a known quantity. The orchestra uses appropriate instruments, including viola da gamba and oboe d'amore, and plays in a light HIP style. Suzuki does not indulge in the too-fast tempi of some HIP conductors but he does keeps things moving. The choir, sixteen strong and including all the soloists except for the Evangelist (Gerd Tuerk), sing in a light almost delicate style that I find refreshing; this is particularly helpful in the highly contrapuntal choruses. They are suitably dramatic in the turbae. Neither orchestra nor choir indulge in objectionable mannerisms. The flutists, the oboe d'amore and the viola da gamba players are particularly outstanding. Masaaki accompanies the recitatives at the harpsichord, but there is a second harpsichordist playing continuo and there is also a very able portative organ player. Tenor Tuerk makes a dramatically effective Evangelist. Bass Stephan MacLeod is a somewhat underpowered Jesus. Soprano Midori Suzuki has a limpid, pleasing soprano. Countertenor Robin Blaze is both musical and more than tolerable (as some countertenors are not) and his 'Es is vollbracht' is moving.

The only current competition for this DVD is the old-fashioned Karl Richter version with Helen Donath and Peter Schreier. It is visually and aurally not up to par and can only be recommended with hesitation.

This is currently the St. John Passion DVD to own. There will undoubtedly be others that come along, but I don't know that I'll look any further than this one.

Scott Morrison

Bach - St. John Passion / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan

Average customer rating:

One for the ages..
A thoroughly stylistic performance

Bach - St. John Passion / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
Starring: Masaaki Suzuki , and Bach Collegium Japan
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00005OCKV
Release Date: 2001-12-04

Amazon.com

One of the greatest musical treatments of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ receives a performance that is musically precise and stylistically close to what we now know of Bach's ideals. Western classical music is becoming more and more the property of musicians and audiences in the Far East, and this performance shows that it is in good hands. The participants are all specialists, including the Japanese orchestra, which plays on period instruments, and their work meets the highest international standards. Masaaki Suzuki, who conducts and plays the harpsichord, is a complete and thorough musician, deeply involved in the emotional overtones of the music as well as technical questions of tempo, balance, and phrasing. His vision comes to terms with the full complexity of the music. His soloists are all excellent, with particularly notable work by Gerd Tuerck as the Evangelist and Robin Blaze in the alto arias. --Joe McLellan

Description

The choir and the orchestra of the Bach Collegium Japan, stars among the celebrated baroque specialists, perform the "St. John Passion" with only a small ensemble of about 50 musicians (as was the custom in Bach's day) under the former Ton Koopman-student Masaaki Suzuki. Soloists: Gerd Tuerck, Stephan MacLeod, Chiyuki Urano, Miduri Suzuki, and Robin Blaze.

Customer Reviews:

One for the ages.........2006-04-12

A thoroughly stylistic performance.......2001-11-17

Masaaki Suzuki's series of Bach cantatas has proved to be a success because of the utmost care about the subtlest details on performing Bach's music. More than that, his group, the Bach Collegium Japan, has a most exquisite sound and he has a nicest team of soloists. They generally record in the fabulous acoustics of the Shoin Women's University Chapel, but here they are in what I believe to be in the Suntory Hall. However, the acoustics are appropriately warm and immediate. Suzuki's style as a Bach conductor is very clean and light. Some may find that, for St.John's Passion, it is seriously lacking in drama, but I think that any Bachian should be delighted to listen to Bach's music played in such a well-thought and faultless way. More than that - there is genuine freshness and naturality in Suzuki's approach and this is very rewarding. He uses a small orchestra with period instruments and uses a small choir, with the soloists joining their colleagues for the choral moments. They produce a wonderfully articulate sound and have clean pronunciation - only they are not particularly illustrative of what is going on in the text. As alwaysSuzuki also has nice soloists, Midori Suzuki's boyish soprano is particularly delightful, but Robin Blaze is wonderfully stylist and offers an easiest voice and has no problem about his low notes, which are perfectly connected to the rest, but produce enough sound. Gerd Türk is also an asset, for his lightest spontaneous tenor takes readily to the high tessitura in which he has to sing his recitatives.

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