<<<  <<  -- 2 --  Robert Anderson    AN ORCHESTRAL CONCEPTION

I will award no prize to anyone detecting appearances of the Passion Chorale, that leitmotif of Bach's religious convictions; but there are manifold other delights to be savoured in these four works. The widow's son, it seems, was probably happier dead than alive. Hence the chorus's willingness to give up the ghost in the penultimate number of 161.

The same sentiment dominates the tenor aria in No 95, when pizzicato strings illustrate the tolling of the soloist's last hour.

Nor is there any escape from the blessedness of death and consequent resurrection in No 27. The opening chorale is interspersed with recitatives from the three upper voices, all convinced they must prepare for the end.

The alto aria concurs with the prevailing mood, but in instrumental colouring by organ and oboe da caccia that will probably reconcile many to remaining in this world a while.

No 84 is altogether more cheerful, and I fully share in the simple good sense of the second aria: 'I eat my meagre bread with joy, / And do not begrudge my neighbour his.' This team under Philippe Herreweghe has been busy with Bach for many a moon. Its 'period instruments', therefore, have established a performance norm way beyond any suspicion of quaintness. The Collegium Vocale of Ghent is robust and sensitive as required, and the soloists revel in Bach's testing and essentially orchestral conception of their part.