Review: Bach - Mass in B Minor - Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon

Following last year’s remarkable recording of Mozart’s Requiem (review), Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon now turn their attention back to another monument of Western Music, Bach’s B Minor Mass. This is the ensemble’s fifth Bach recording: previous releases include excellent performances of the four Missae Breve (Alpha), a reconstruction of the “Köthener Trauermusik,” the complete motets, and the St. Matthew Passion, all on Harmonia Mundi.

Bach – Mass in B Minor

Reviewing the Passion recording (see here), I felt Pichon’s interpretation sometimes lacks the dramatic intensity that makes Harnoncourt, Gardiner and Suzuki (second recording) so moving. Happily, this latest release is altogether more successful.

Pygmalion’s performance is particularly accomplished, I especially enjoyed the robustness of the altos and tenors, which lets us hear every strand of even the densest contrapuntal writing. Intonation is unassailable, as is dynamic control, as evidenced in the final ‘Dona nobis pacem’ (CD 2, Track 15).

A period instruments performance with thirty singers (plus soloists) flies in the face of other period performances that embrace Joshua Rifkin’s 1-2 singers per part argument. And two such recordings by Minkowski (Naïve) and Mortensen (CPO) are dramatically and musically satisfying, in large part because the singing has a heightened flexibility and dramatic engagement.

But Pichon’s singers are as lithe and vivid as anything heard in those two performances, while the refulgence of the choral sound in big moments, such as the outer movements of the ‘Gloria,’ or the opening two sections of the ‘Sanctus,’ have a resplendent power five voices simply cannot match.

And I would urge anyone who contends that period instruments cannot sound as beautiful as their modern counterparts to hear this performance. The balance and finesse of the playing is a constant delight. The three trumpets, especially in recordings from the 1980s (such as Gardiner’s first reading on Archiv) can take on an unappealing brashness. Not here – trumpets and drums have a solid presence that never overwhelms strings and woodwinds.

The soloists are uniformly distinguished, so much so that I hesitate to write that one stands out from the others. I like that Pichon does not use a countertenor, as alto Lucile Richardot’s intelligent, emotive rendition of the ‘Agnus Dei’ is particularly touching, as is the duet of soprano Julie Roset and mezzo Beth Taylor in the ‘Christe eleison.’ Bass Christian Immler seems to be on the roster of every new Bach release these days and listening to his work here one can easily understand why. Tenor Emiliano Gonzalez is just as good.

On my first listening, I sometimes felt a lack of dramatic urgency similar to what frustrated me about their St. Matthew Passion. But on repeated hearings, I became convinced it was a matter of perspective. Gardiner’s first Archiv recording was my first B minor, and I would argue he interprets the score as if he is a new convert to the faith. From that vantage point, his driven tempos, emphatic pronunciation, dominating brass and timpani capture the zealousness of new belief.

Pichon’s reading is more reverential (though no less dramatic), as if he is a person who has always believed, and whose faith has continually developed through all of life’s joys and sorrows to become a deep and constant source of comfort and guidance. And surely this interpretive position may be an accurate description of Bach’s faith at the time he sat down to write this final mass.

The CD booklet includes an introductory note by Pichon and a thorough discussion of how Bach assembled the mass from a disparate group of earlier works to make a cohesive whole, written by Bach scholar Peter Wollny. It also includes a listing of performers, and full texts and translations. An impressive, impactful performance all lovers of Bach must hear.