Post Description

This was the recording which changed for ever the way we thought (and continue to think) about Bach performance. Since it is now but one of many "period instrument" performances, it is easy to lose sight of the overwhelming effect which this recording had on those hearing it for the first time in 1968 (I was one of the fortunate first to experience the overwhelming power of Bach's masterpiece revealed in this performance at the tender age of 11!). Many of the details which contributed towards making the original recording uniquely important have now been omitted in the documentation accompanying this re-issue (a far cry from the lavish booklet of the original LP release of 1968). First, although Harnoncourt is credited as conductor, the performance was actually directed by Hans Gillesberger, perhaps the most important of the directors of the post-war Vienna Boys' Choir. Harnoncourt led the Concentus Musicus Wien from the cello (as he did for many of the Bach choral recordings made for Telefunken in the '60's and '70's). Perhaps equally important, this recording was the brain-child of the great German producer for Telefunken, Wolf Erichson, whose SEON and later, Sony Vivarte recordings have continued to document the most important "period-instrument" performances to the present day. Among the vocal soloists were such great singers as Rotraud Hansmann (unjustly neglected by recording companies in later years), the wonderful Helen Watts (who also recorded the B-minor mass with Karl Munchinger and Johannes Somary), the exemplary Kurt Equiluz, still the greatest Bach tenor of our time, and the superlative Max van Egmond, whose standards have not (and probably will not) ever been surpassed (listen to the "Et in Spiritum sanctum" and you'll agree). Add to this the almost viscerally thrilling sound of the Viennese trebles, and you have one of the greatest (and most influential) recordings of all time. Also lost on this re-issue is the important detail that Harnoncourt used three different sized choirs for this recording (small: 16; medium: 24; large: 42). He matched the size of the accompanying instrumental forces to suit. Numerous other details added up to what was for its time a uniquely thorough attempt to do justice to Bach's transcendental work. It's true that there have been advances in period performance techniques in the 34 years since this recording appeared, but to hear this recording is to experience the B minor mass with the excitement of discovery. Just try the transition from the bass solo "Quoniam" to the "Cum sancto spiritu", and the "Confiteor" into the "Et expecto", and you'll see why this recording deserves to be considered one of the great performances of the 20th century, as much a tribute to the largely forgotten Hans Gillesberger as it is to Harnoncourt, without doubt one of the great interpreters of our time. Buy it! It still sounds truly amazing.