Two Easter St. Matthew Passoins (Plus One) (by Uri Golomb)

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Two Easter St. Matthew Passions (Plus One)
Written by Uri Golomb [PhD Student, The Music Faculty, Cambridge University]. (May 2002)
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Uri Golomb wrote (May 4, 2002):
I'm a new members of BCML and BRML (though a long-time reader of bach-cantatas.com) -- a Bach enthusiast, and now doing a PhD in musicology on recordings of the Mass in B Minor.

As a student in Cambridge, it has been my great pleasure to witness many live Bach performances, and I thought members of both lists could might be particularly interested in three recent live performances of the SMP which I attended -- two of them last year (conducted by Sir Roger Norrington and Paul McCreesh), and one this year (again conducted by Paul McCreesh, and featuring the singers with whom he will record the work for Archiv Produktion).

I sent my review to Aryeh, and it is now posted on: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/SMP-Golomb.htm.

Hope you will find this of interest!

Kirk McElhearn wrote (May 4, 2002):
[To Uri Golomb] Thank you for the excellent reviews. Just one comment - in a note you say that this is the first time McCreesh conducted the SMP. I assume you mean this series of performances is the first time, not this individual performance. He has been touring with it for quite a while - I don't think the Easter 2001 performances (in London and in France) were the first, but I could be wrong.

OTOH, I am delighted to see that Magdalena will be on the recording....

Matthew Westphal wrote (May 4, 2002):
I also appreciate Uri's reviews and thank Kirk for passing them along.

McCreesh has been conducting the SMP in one format or another for some years now. His first OVPP performance that I know of was at Les folles journיes Bach in Nantes
on 29 January 2000.

I heard him do both Passions at the Festival de la Chaise-Dieu in August 2000 -- there's a review at: http://www.andante.com/magazine/article.cfm?id=10417.

There's also a review of McCreesh's SMP in London in March of this year at: http://www.andante.com/magazine/article.cfm?id=16397.

There's an article at: Amazon.com
where McCreesh talks about how he came around to the OVPP camp. There are also quotes from Konrad Junghänel, Drew Minter, Julianne Baird and Philippe Herreweghe.

There's also an interview (slightly older) with McCreesh at: Amazon.com

Kirk McElhearn wrote (May 4, 2002):
Matthew Westphal wrote:
< McCreesh has been conducting the SMP in one format or another for some years now. His first OVPP performance that I know of was at Les folles journées Bach in Nantes on 29 January 2000. >
Yes, that would be the one I heard on French radio. Brilliant performance...

Uri Golomb wrote (May 4, 2002):
[To Kirk McElhearn & Matthew Wesrphal] Many thanks for your response, for the web references -- and for the correction of my error regarding McCreesh's SMP. I must have read somewhere, in the advanced publicity for his Barbican SMP, that it was his first OVPP performance in the work (and I'm almost positive it's the first time he's done it like that in London), and somehow leapt to the conclusion that it's the first time he's done it at all. In any case, this does not alter my basic conclusion: that Barbican performance was good, but the St. John's Smith Square performance was much better (insofar as I can compare two live experiences a year apart), and it promises a superb recording.

The quotation from McCreesh in the Amazon article might explain why I found the playing a bit too gentle at times -- he says he's had to tell players not to be too aggressive... He obviously has a point, but personally, I would have preferred a little extra "bite" from his orchestra, especially when the singers were so dramatic. Still, that's only a minor reservation (which others might not share), and I strongly recommend his recording of the SMP -- when it comes out.

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