The Critical Discographies from Choral Music On Records - Mass in B Minor Pages at the Teri Noel Towe Home Pages
Johann Sebastian Bach
The Critical Discographies from Choral Music On Records
This remarkable photograph is not a computer generated composite; the original of the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment, all that
remains of the portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach that belonged to his pupil Johann Christian Kittel, is resting gently on the surface
of the original of the 1748 Elias Gottlob Haussmann Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach.
1748 Elias Gottlob Haussmann Portrait, Courtesy of William H. Scheide, Princeton, New Jersey
Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment, ca. 1733, Artist Unknown, Courtesy of the Weydenhammer Descendants
Photograph by Teri Noel Towe
©Teri Noel Towe, 2001, All Rights Reserved
The Critical Discographies from Choral Music On Records
Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
The 1950s
During the decade following the commemoration of the bicentenary of Bach's death in 1950, a number of other recordings of the
Mass, in addition to those previously discussed, were released. Among the first was Hermann Scherchen's. [22] Predictably quirky
and iconoclastic, his recording features what is undoubtedly the slowest first "Kyrie" of all. Scherchen takes Bach's marking -
"Largo" - absolutely at face value; the second "Kyrie" is also very slow. The "Benedictus", sung sotto voce by Anton Dermota, is
weird: gummy with regard to both tempo and interpretation. Gertrud Burgsthaler-Schuster, the contralto, sings the "Agnus Dei"
particularly beautifully; she is emotive but never maudlin.
The distinguished German conductor Fritz Lehmann recorded the Mass shortly before his premature death. His is a powerful and
assertive if somewhat brusque reading that calls to mind the famous description of Wagner's Symphony in C: The road may be
more than a little bumpy, but he reaches his destination. Lehmann employs a relatively large chorus and orchestra, and the basic
tactus is measured but never turgid; in short, it is a grandiose interpretation of the Ramin type. The soloists are uneven: Margherita
de Landi is a rather unsubtle contralto, but Helmut Krebs's distinctive, pure, patrician tenor voice lends dignity and pathos to the
"Benedictus" particularly. Lehmann's interpretation, which was recorded in concert, if the less that accurate trumpet playing and
some acerbic instrumental intonation can be taken as dispositive evidence, appeared in at least four different incarnations during the
'50s and '60s, always with the same soloists listed but not always with the same orchestra and chorus receiving credit. Suffice it to
say that all four issues listed in the discography are the same performance, note for note, and the Berlin Radio forces most likely the
"correct" ones. [23]
The greatest question mark in the discography of the Mass in B Minor is the anonymous recording that appeared in the United
States in the mid 1950s on the Gramophone (no relation to His Master's Voice) label. Neither the conductor nor the soloists are
identified; the performance is ascribed simply to The Cathedral Choir and Symphony Orchestra. [24] On the basis of the
pronunciations of words like "coeli", one would surmise that the performance is German in origin, and it is almost certainly a
recording of a radio broadcast. Normally, recordings like this can be given short shrift in an article of this kind, but this set is the
exception that proves the rule, for it fortuitously preserves an excellent, majestically paced "Romantic" interpretation of singular
vision, commitment, and individuality, performed by a large chorus and orchestra and an exceptionally fine quintet of soloists.
(There are two basses, and the soprano sounds suspiciously like Erna Berger.) Who was responsible for this magnificent reading is
anybody's educated guess, but is it possible that this is a recording of an otherwise undocumented broadcast of the B Minor Mass
conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler? One thing is certain; it does not closely resemble the interpretations of any of the conductors
who made "commercial" recordings of the Mass during this period.
Another "live" recording from the same period was made at the International Music Festival in Strasbourg, France, in 1958. [25]
Under the direction of Fritz Münch, the elder brother of the distinguished conductor Charles Munch, this poorly balanced
recording, in which the chorus is dim in relation to the orchestra is an interesting souvenir of a worthy, earnest, and somewhat
Debussyian provincial interpretation of the Mass, which is characterized by sluggish tempos and acidulous trumpet playing.
Eugen Jochum conducted his first recording of the Mass that same year. [26] His is a soft, gentle, and dignified approach to the
score that stresses its contemplative aspects. Lois Marshall is not in as good form as she was three years later for Ifor Jones, and a
tentative and somewhat querulous Peter Pears is not up to his usual high standard either. Jochum's second recording of the Mass,
made nearly 25 years later, is little different from his first. [27] Overall, the soloists are marginally better, but Robert Holl is the only
one who really stands out. He sings the "Et in spiritum sanctum" clearly and warmly, with excellent breath control.
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