Johann Seb Bach - St John Passion - Chorale no. 11

[thebloads]

Very VERY Fine performance!

[Onegiin]

Back in the late Fifties and early Sixties, WCRB-FM in Boston used to sign off at midnight with this piece. I often found it was worth staying up late just to hear it.

[pajocas10]

Schön!

[gerardbedecarter]

Beautiful !

[flashnizmmm]

hm, es ist natürlich bach, mein lehrer sagt immer, man kann alles machen mit Bach... Aber die Dynamik sagt mir so nicht zu. Ich denke der Choral ist nicht als Lob angelegt.

Die Freude die hier besungen wird, ist denke ich eine ganz persönliche innige intime Freude. Denn immerhin wird hier um die Gnade nach dem Tod gebeten.

Joar, mir war danach euch das mitzuteilen :D

[ee000011]

@flashnizmmm Recht uber Gnade nach dem Tod?

[ee000011]

Der grosse begeisterde Johan. S. Bach!

[stigekalder]

I also think that Bachs chorales for the St John Passion are among the best he ever wrote. I also think that Bachs pupil Kirnberger was right when he pointed out how difficult it is "...not only to give each of the four voices its own flowing melody, but also to keep a uniform character in all, so that out of their union a single and perfect whole may arise. In this the late Capellmeister Bach in Leipzig perhaps excelled all the composers in the world...".

[markiangooley]

Maybe a bit too _piano_ at the start, but otherwise a fine performance, and it's fun to look at the music and pick out the individual lines. This is Bach near his best with the four-part chorale harmonization: all the harmony lines are lovely, although it's the bassi who really get to kick ass.

[markiangooley]

The alto line is relatively boring -- they tend to be anyway, and Bach gave away the treasures to the tenors and bassi -- but it has a few wonderful accidentals.

If I buy this Monteverdi/Gardiner version -- and they tend to disappoint me just a tad with Bach sometimes -- I will definitely have to crank up the volume on the repeat. Yeah, I know, I know it's good performance practice and traditional, and especially fitting with this text, but it's TOO QUIET for my bad hearing.