50 — Wednesday, December 9, 1992 - North Shore News

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"Remember, we're only taking pictures so
everyone is envious when we get home.”

| rn HT, rt

Passion’s peak ©
Bach’s St. John’s beautifully
realized in new performance

}.S. Bach: Johannes Passion.
RCA Victor ‘‘Red Seal’’ Series
CD #09026-60903-2. Choral
Community of Neubeuern.
Bach-Collegium of Munich. In-
ga Nielsen, soprano; Nathalie
Stutzmann, alto; Claes Ahnsjo,
tenor; Thomas Quasthoff, bass;
Enoch zu Gutienburg, conduc-
tor.

OT EVERYONE is
passionate about
passions.

For some they rank only slightly
above arthritis in terms of appeal.
But this music is driven by
fohann’s passion — not Johannes’
— and there were few composers
more passionate than he.

A passion is a kind of oratorio
but with a story that centres on the
sufferings and death of Christ as
extracted frorn the texts of the
gospels.

Appropriately, a passion is
almost an opera but differs in
presenting its characters and
choruses without staging or sets
with the benefit that little of the
experience is fost in your living
room, ‘

Such entertainments have been
around since tne Dark Ages.

It can be said, however — and it
so often is about so many musical
things — that Bach brought the
form to its brightest peak.

tt is also said, or at least
suspected, that Bach wrote five
such works, one according to each
gospel.

But only two of those survive in
their entirety today, this St. John’s
as well as the more popular and
expansive St. Matthew's.

Written in the spring of 1723,

the St. John's passion was the first.

major work to mark the arrival of
Bach to the office of Cantor of the
Thomasschule of Leipzig following
those happy, carefree, productive
days at Cothen.

As if in response to this dramatic
change in the composer's tife, the
St. John’s passion is among tiiz
most dramatic music of Bach’s ca-
reer,

itis dynamic, compelling and
ultimately entertaining in a man-
ner not always associated with
biblical themes.

Part of this can be attributed to
the music, of course, bul larger

MULLED WINE.

EVERY CHRISTMAS, some doofus
who's read too much Dickens to
get in the mood says, “‘Let’s

make old-fashioned mulled wine!’’

Litres of perfectly good red wine
or port are duly heated, spiced,
sugared, sampled and abandoned
in favor of more traditionally Ca-
aadian Christmas beverages, to be
committed to the municipal
sewage system the following
morn.

“Mulled’’ (spiced and heated)
wire, or still cider, is a winter
warmer tormerly favored by trav-
ellers at English “coaching inns”
where the combination of heat,
alcohal and acamatics was a tonic
to combat the hypothermic side-
effects of travelling by stage.

Not something anyone would
want ore than one glass of, so
simply heat about 4 oz. of red
porchaimber or port and about
the same amecunt of water.

Dash in some bitters if you have
them, a teaspoon of sugar, lemon

* . :

Ross MacDonal
CLASSICAL MUSIC

credit goes to Bach's sophisticated
characterizations, particularly his
indictment of the mob mentality.

Such savoir faire can be easily
lost in performance and cften is
when presented with anything less
than total understanding.

Fortunately for us, Guttenburg
has been marked for achieving
exactly the cpposite with Bach,
and he is weil noted for his

nerpretations of this
composer's works.

As such, this recording is the
one to have.

Though the soloists have
achieved considerably less ap-
plause in North America than
elsewhere, they are a first-rate
crew made only better under Gut-
tenburg’s able baton.

The choral and instrumental
passages, so often trusted against
less than vigorous direction, have
been obviously tailored to an ideal
fit. These segments actually steal
the show from the soloists to
become highlights on their own.

Modern technology has taken
the worry out of the technical
aspects of most new recordings
these days, and RCA is no farther
behind or ahead than any other
major label on that score. The
sound quality is excellent as is the
performance, and RCA‘s pres-
entation is very good — the ac-
companying booklet even has il-
lustrations to keep you occupied
during the boring bits.

Many people resist passions, but
everybody should have at least
two — one of which belongs on
cD.

But, where Bach’s St. Matthew
rightly holds the gold as the con-
summiate passion, it is far lass
entertaining than this one.

Mf you're going to have only one
passion of the CD kind, go for this
St. Johri’s.

twist, a pinch of cinnamon and a
couple of whole cloves. Let the
saucepan come to just under a
boil, then pour inte a large tankard
or mug.

Traditionally the drink was
neated by plunging the red hot
end of a poker feftin the hearth
fire into the pewter tankard.

Unless you have carpets you
hate so much you can affae! to
replace them, a first-aid tickzt with
a major in burns and a fire extin-
guisher at hand, don’t try this at
home, - John Moore

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