Matthaus-Passion BWV 244 - conducted by Wolfgang Gonnenwein

Recording

V-3	Matthäus-Passion BWV 244
Wolfgang Gönnenwein
Süddeutscher Madrigalchor & Consortium musicum
Tenor [Evangelist, 2^nd Witness]: Theo Altmeyer; Bass [Jesus]: Franz Crass; Soprano [Arias]: Teresa Zylis-Gara; Alto [Arias]: Julia Hamari; Tenor [Arias]: Nicolai Gedda; Bass [Arias]: Hermann Prey; Bass [Petrus, High Priest, Pilatus]: Hans Sotin; Bass [Judas]: Siegfried Härtel; Soprano [Pilatus' wife]: Noor Leertouwer; Soprano [1^st Maid]: Liselotte Renner; Alto [2^nd Maid]: Susanne Dürr; Alto [1^st Witness]: Vera Scherr
EMI		May-Jun 1968	3-CD / TT: 196:33

The Gönnenwein SMP

Santu De Silva (Archimedes) wrote (November 27, 2000):
Does anyone know of an outfit called the South German Madrigal Choir (or something like that) conducted by Wolfgang Gönnenwein (insert your own umlauts, please), and their recording of the SMP?

I own their Haydn: Creation (Die Hopfung) and it is my favorite version on VOX. I also heard their SMP on LP in the 1970's in a public library, and I think I would
like to have a CD of that recording.

The SMP's I own are from John Eliot Gardiner &Co (Archiv), a Harnoncourt, and, of course, Klemperer. I have given my Klemperer away. It is TOO too massive for my tastes. I appreciate the approach: the large-scale, very public attitude towards
meditation on the Passion. I grew up with it. I just think that Klemperer is a little too extreme.

Gardiner, on the other hand, is a little too callous, flippant, fatuous. I have often said that he seems to rush through the arias to get to the choruses just so they can show off
there. I mean, they certainly do a wonderful job of the choruses. But listening to Bach choruses sung by the Monteverdi Choir is like painting a nativity scene with the Madonna in a dry-cleaned, pressed and starched new outfit. (my analogies seem to lean heavily in the direction of couture...why is this? Hmmm...) I'm beginning to appreciate Harnoncourt/Leonard's choral recordings more as I grow older. There's a rude honesty in their singing that makes me imagine that it is Bach's own boys singing. (Of course, even they (Tölzer / Weiner Singerknaben) sing too well, I imagine...)

I think, perhaps, the Harnoncourt / Leonard recordings come closest to my ideal for Bach choral music (though Gardiner comes close when he's having a bad day). Sometimes I think Gardiner's crew are robots, but other times they are just wonderful. <sigh>

Perhaps it is a matter of the intrinsic perfection of Bach's music and how it fights against too-perfect execution. Too-perfect execution of Bach often grates on my nerves. The most perfect I can stand is perhaps Gould's piano playing. That mechanical, relentless, fast performance, so despised by some, is okay with me. But a slightly rough performance -especially of vocal music- seems to set off the
perfection of the writing.

Philip Peters wrote (November 27, 2000):
< Santu De Silva wrote: Does anyone know of an outfit called the South German Madrigal Choir (or something like that) conducted by Wolfgang Gonnenwein (insert your own umlauts, please), and their recording of the SMP? >
Mandatory non-HIP SMP! This is, I take it, the 1969 recording with Altmeyer, Hamari, Sotin a.o.? I can't remember the choir off the top of my head but as far as I know there is only one SMP by Gönnenwein and it's very good indeed.

< (snip) The SMP's I own are from John Eliot Gardiner &Co (Archiv), a Harnoncourt, and, of course, Klemperer. I have given my Klemperer away. It is TOO too massive for my tastes. I appreciate the approach: the large-scale, very public attitude towards meditation on the Passion. I grew up with it. I just think that Klemperer is a little too extreme. >
Gönnenwein is lighter but if I had to choose.....

< (snip) I think, perhaps, the Harnoncourt / Leonard recordings come closest to my ideal for Bach choral music (though Gardiner comes close when he's having a bad day). Sometimes I think Gardiner's crew are robots, but other times they are just wonderful. <sigh> >
Did you try the second Herreweghe?

Teri Noel Towe wrote (November 27, 2000):
< Santu De Silva wrote: Does anyone know of an outfit called the South German Madrigal Choir (or something like that) conducted by Wolfgang Gonnenwein (insert your own umlauts, please), and their recording of the SMP >
Yes.

The Gönnenwein performance (The umlaut is over the "o".), which was issued in the USA on EMI Angel, dates from the late 1960's. The details on the performing forces may be found in my critical discography of the "St. Matthew Passion", which is included in Alan Blyth's anthology "Choral Music on Records", which was published by Cambridge University Press about ten years ago.

I haven't listened to the performance, which was never one I particularly enjoyed, since I had to re-audition it for that critical discography. I recall, however, that the Evangelist's recitatives were all sung at a ponderous tempo. The effect was Bach in cement overshoes.

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