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January 22nd 2010
A 'bare', vulnerable St Matthew Passion of sky-high perfection
To have a strong, innovative vision and a 100% belief that such a vision can bear fruit. A vision that creates controversy: people are against it, or they love it. And then, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
With their new and masterly recording of the St Matthew Passion of J.S. Bach, La Petite Bande and Sigiswald Kuijken provide a very tasty and nutritious pudding, at the same time proving the idea of not using a full choir but leaving solo- as well as choral parts up to the soloists, is very much more than theoretical vision. This recording is musical archaeology in its purest form. It is as if thick layers of dust have been wiped away and finally the true essence, the soul of the St Matthew Passion has become visible and audible. In the first few bars of music, the astounding clarity of this interpretation is manifest. When the first ‘choir’ of soloists enters, you will feel gooseflesh from excitement.
The St Matthew Passion is often considered a beautiful but heavy work, not only because of its length but also because of the music itself. But in this version, it seems as if the masterpiece has more lightness, there is more radiance. This is because of the ‘bareness’ of the interpretation of La Petite Bande. Being bare, vulnerable can be a frightening thing, but goes back to the essence of the music that J.S. Bach wrote.
The recording process of this version of the Passion was a very special one and has a lot to do with being vulnerable. The recording was to be made in the orchestra’s home city of Leuven (Belgium), but it seemed that half of Leuven was one big construction site. During the day there would be no possibility of making a recording at all. Recording producer Bert van der Wolf and Sigiswald Kuijken discussed what to do. To make a regular recording consisting of the usual separate sessions (this is : to repeat one piece over and over again until an “ideal” take was recorded) was out of the question. The only time they had, was during the night after seven o’ clock, when the noises outside stopped. Bert van der Wolf came up with the idea to record the St. Matthew Passion the first night as a whole, live! The three following nights were to be used to fill in gaps and to re-record any which needed correction.
This was the idea, but the execution of this masterplan was something else. First the musicians, and in particular the vocalists, had to be persuaded to do what had become more or less a live recording of one of the longest pieces that Bach ever wrote. Doing things over and over again, was not an option, because of the lack of time. Bert had to talk to the musicians, especially the singers, into putting aside their fears or doubts about this way of recording. After all, they had already performed this piece in several concerts. When everybody was finally okay with the idea, Bert gave an unexpected order to the whole group: “I forbade them to go anywhere”, he said. “I made them promise that they would be present the whole time, four nights in a row. There could be no walking in and out. Usually, in a piece with 68 tracks like this, you have to change the set up a lot, to record the next track. Almost every choral part or aria needs different musicians or soloists. In a standard production every track would be recorded separately, and people would be walking in and out, which would have to be planned precisely.”
Bert van der Wolf and Sigiswald Kuijken wanted all the musicians to really be there to create this recording. They were afraid that if the total group was not there all the time, the recording would sound fragmented.
They were all there. During the first night a full live recording was made. And during daytime Bert did his production work, so that the next three nights he knew exactly what parts still had to be done. It was a very intense and unique process. The solidarity, the oneness of this group of people was tangible and so was the dynamic tension. The whole group was indeed present from the first to the last note. The music breathes so that, you hear in every note the atmosphere, the space and the intention.
The positive tension that one can feel, would not have been there if this had been a ‘normal’ recording. Of course, such a recording can be made into one (and sound absolutely complete) by an excellent producer such as Van der Wolf, but this last minute change of circumstances was a chance, and one can almost say it was “a gift from God. When it was over, a lot of people cried or had tears in their eyes because of the enormous intensity of it all”, Bert van der Wolf concludes.
La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken and Bert van der Wolf had the courage to be vulnerable and 'bare' in this process. The whole project was balanced on a knife-edge : it had to be done then and there. People were there to see, hear and take part in the recording of this masterpiece together and not with just a few colleagues as would be the case at a recording session. Afterwards, Sigiswald was so inspired by all of this, that he told Bert he was considering making more of these ‘hybrid’ (combining live and session-)recordings in the future. The vulnerability and the courage in the interpretation and recording of this version of the St Matthew Passion, is omnipresent and it raises the production to a sky-high level of perfection.
Valentine Laout- Van Leeuwenstein
Your comment:
A 'bare', vulnerable St Matthew Passion of sky-high perfection
To have a strong, innovative vision and a 100% belief that such a vision can bear fruit. A vision that creates controversy: people are against it, or they love it. And then, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
With their new and masterly recording of the St Matthew Passion of J.S. Bach, La Petite Bande and Sigiswald Kuijken provide a very tasty and nutritious pudding, at the same time proving the idea of not using a full choir but leaving solo- as well as choral parts up to the soloists, is very much more than theoretical vision. This recording is musical archaeology in its purest form. It is as if thick layers of dust have been wiped away and finally the true essence, the soul of the St Matthew Passion has become visible and audible. In the first few bars of music, the astounding clarity of this interpretation is manifest. When the first ‘choir’ of soloists enters, you will feel gooseflesh from excitement.
The St Matthew Passion is often considered a beautiful but heavy work, not only because of its length but also because of the music itself. But in this version, it seems as if the masterpiece has more lightness, there is more radiance. This is because of the ‘bareness’ of the interpretation of La Petite Bande. Being bare, vulnerable can be a frightening thing, but goes back to the essence of the music that J.S. Bach wrote.
The recording process of this version of the Passion was a very special one and has a lot to do with being vulnerable. The recording was to be made in the orchestra’s home city of Leuven (Belgium), but it seemed that half of Leuven was one big construction site. During the day there would be no possibility of making a recording at all. Recording producer Bert van der Wolf and Sigiswald Kuijken discussed what to do. To make a regular recording consisting of the usual separate sessions (this is : to repeat one piece over and over again until an “ideal” take was recorded) was out of the question. The only time they had, was during the night after seven o’ clock, when the noises outside stopped. Bert van der Wolf came up with the idea to record the St. Matthew Passion the first night as a whole, live! The three following nights were to be used to fill in gaps and to re-record any which needed correction.
This was the idea, but the execution of this masterplan was something else. First the musicians, and in particular the vocalists, had to be persuaded to do what had become more or less a live recording of one of the longest pieces that Bach ever wrote. Doing things over and over again, was not an option, because of the lack of time. Bert had to talk to the musicians, especially the singers, into putting aside their fears or doubts about this way of recording. After all, they had already performed this piece in several concerts. When everybody was finally okay with the idea, Bert gave an unexpected order to the whole group: “I forbade them to go anywhere”, he said. “I made them promise that they would be present the whole time, four nights in a row. There could be no walking in and out. Usually, in a piece with 68 tracks like this, you have to change the set up a lot, to record the next track. Almost every choral part or aria needs different musicians or soloists. In a standard production every track would be recorded separately, and people would be walking in and out, which would have to be planned precisely.”
Bert van der Wolf and Sigiswald Kuijken wanted all the musicians to really be there to create this recording. They were afraid that if the total group was not there all the time, the recording would sound fragmented.
They were all there. During the first night a full live recording was made. And during daytime Bert did his production work, so that the next three nights he knew exactly what parts still had to be done. It was a very intense and unique process. The solidarity, the oneness of this group of people was tangible and so was the dynamic tension. The whole group was indeed present from the first to the last note. The music breathes so that, you hear in every note the atmosphere, the space and the intention.
The positive tension that one can feel, would not have been there if this had been a ‘normal’ recording. Of course, such a recording can be made into one (and sound absolutely complete) by an excellent producer such as Van der Wolf, but this last minute change of circumstances was a chance, and one can almost say it was “a gift from God. When it was over, a lot of people cried or had tears in their eyes because of the enormous intensity of it all”, Bert van der Wolf concludes.
La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken and Bert van der Wolf had the courage to be vulnerable and 'bare' in this process. The whole project was balanced on a knife-edge : it had to be done then and there. People were there to see, hear and take part in the recording of this masterpiece together and not with just a few colleagues as would be the case at a recording session. Afterwards, Sigiswald was so inspired by all of this, that he told Bert he was considering making more of these ‘hybrid’ (combining live and session-)recordings in the future. The vulnerability and the courage in the interpretation and recording of this version of the St Matthew Passion, is omnipresent and it raises the production to a sky-high level of perfection.
Valentine Laout- Van Leeuwenstein
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