J.S. Bach: St Matthew Passion - Aria “Erbarme dich”. Marga Höffgen, RCO, Eugen Jochum. Rec. 1965
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 - Part Two: No. 39 Aria (Alto) “Erbarme dich” Marga Höffgen, Concertgebouworkest, Eugen Jochum Grote Zaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 20–30 November 1965 Deutsche Grammophon – 479 8237 https://www.discogs.com/ru/release/13214868-Eugen-Jochum-Complete-Recordings-On-Deutsche-Grammophon-Vol-2-Opera-And-Choral-Works https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/jochum-complete-dg-recordings-vol-2-4190 https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000069CU https://www.amazon.com/Eugen-Jochum-Complete-Recordings-Grammophon/dp/B0766FLLJW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/eugen-jochum-choral-recordings-on-philips/ "Even as the period-instrument movement gathered momentum during the 1960s, Jochum refused to relinquish Bach to historical specialists. He wrote an extensive essay on the interpretation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in the 1960s. ‘Even nearer to my heart,’ he said, ‘is the B minor Mass, the most spiritual work in the repertory.’ For Philips he recorded the four great pillars of Bach’s sacred music between 1958 (B minor Mass) and 1973 (Christmas Oratorio). His interpretations tread a scrupulous, devotional middle way between stylistic traditions: ‘I don’t think it matters too much if you use a large or a small choir, old or new instruments; what they must be is lively and dramatic. Expression is the heart of the matter’." https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/eugen-jochum-choral-recordings-on-philips/ “The best St. Matthew Passion I have ever heard! The best choro-orchestral album of 1967!” Cincinnati Enquirer (Bach: St. Matthew Passion) https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/eugen-jochum-choral-recordings-on-philips/ “A performance of considerable mass and scope … Haefliger is a very good Evangelist, skilled and understanding. Berry is in excellent form, rich-voiced and steady; he introduces more colour into his role than other performers of the part on records, stressing the human side of Jesus … Very good sound throughout.” High Fidelity, January 1968 (Bach: St. Matthew Passion) https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/eugen-jochum-choral-recordings-on-philips/ “The vocalists, it must be said, are among the best one could hear in any Bach Passion today; particularly admirable is Ernst Haefliger, who as the Evangelist provides drama, rhetoric, and sensitivity.” Stereo Review, March 1968 (Bach: St. Matthew Passion) https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/eugen-jochum-choral-recordings-on-philips/ “A loving, supple, dramatic and colourful reading, with much ebb and flow.” Choral Music on Record, 1991 (Bach: St. Matthew Passion) https://www.allmusic.com/album/bach-matth%C3%A4us-passion-bruckner-te-deum-mw0003014339/user-reviews Davis Smith November 26, 2019 "This is an absolute gem of a recording that needs to be the top recommendation for the SMP whenever someone is new to the work. More than any other Bach work touched by the HIP movement, I feel that this one suffers the most when subjected to speedy tempi, light textures, and curt choral phasing. When I hear Gardiner, Harnoncourt, and Herreweghe take the emotionally devastating opening chorus at the clip of a Brandenburg Concerto movement, I am not only annoyed but indignant. When I hear one of the most moving arias ever penned, “Mache Dich Mein Herze Rein” sung in a lilting, flippant manner, I feel like I am being deprived of the real meaning of the music. Now, if all you want out of the Passion is a theatrical, fast-paced story to enjoy, those recordings are perfect. But I don’t view the Passion that way. Jochum brings the same signature warmth, subtle intensity, lustrous beauty, and immense dedication that makes him one of the greatest conductors of Germanic repertoire to this great composition and the results are simply wonderful. How that opening chorus is handled really does set the table for the proceedings that subsequently unfold, and he chooses a speed that rolls along nicely and throbs with the requisite anguish while maintaining flexibility and reverence. Klemperer and Richter are simply too slow here, and Jochum does it the right way. The singing of the chorales, one of my favorite elements of the Passion which are often undermined in other performances, is handled with the proper finesse and weight. The soloists may not be household names, but I find their contributions consistently above average (then again, I always skip the recitatives; a bad habit that I probably need to change). Try Harnoncourt, Gardiner, Klemperer, and others, and if you find them too extreme to one end or the other, try Jochum’s blissful happy medium."
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 - Part Two: No. 39 Aria (Alto) “Erbarme dich” Marga Höffgen, Concertgebouworkest, Eugen Jochum Grote Zaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 20–30 November 1965 Deutsche Grammophon – 479 8237 https://www.discogs.com/ru/release/13214868-Eugen-Jochum-Complete-Recordings-On-Deutsche-Grammophon-Vol-2-Opera-And-Choral-Works https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/jochum-complete-dg-recordings-vol-2-4190 https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000069CU https://www.amazon.com/Eugen-Jochum-Complete-Recordings-Grammophon/dp/B0766FLLJW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/eugen-jochum-choral-recordings-on-philips/ "Even as the period-instrument movement gathered momentum during the 1960s, Jochum refused to relinquish Bach to historical specialists. He wrote an extensive essay on the interpretation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in the 1960s. ‘Even nearer to my heart,’ he said, ‘is the B minor Mass, the most spiritual work in the repertory.’ For Philips he recorded the four great pillars of Bach’s sacred music between 1958 (B minor Mass) and 1973 (Christmas Oratorio). His interpretations tread a scrupulous, devotional middle way between stylistic traditions: ‘I don’t think it matters too much if you use a large or a small choir, old or new instruments; what they must be is lively and dramatic. Expression is the heart of the matter’." https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/eugen-jochum-choral-recordings-on-philips/ “The best St. Matthew Passion I have ever heard! The best choro-orchestral album of 1967!” Cincinnati Enquirer (Bach: St. Matthew Passion) https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/eugen-jochum-choral-recordings-on-philips/ “A performance of considerable mass and scope … Haefliger is a very good Evangelist, skilled and understanding. Berry is in excellent form, rich-voiced and steady; he introduces more colour into his role than other performers of the part on records, stressing the human side of Jesus … Very good sound throughout.” High Fidelity, January 1968 (Bach: St. Matthew Passion) https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/eugen-jochum-choral-recordings-on-philips/ “The vocalists, it must be said, are among the best one could hear in any Bach Passion today; particularly admirable is Ernst Haefliger, who as the Evangelist provides drama, rhetoric, and sensitivity.” Stereo Review, March 1968 (Bach: St. Matthew Passion) https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/eugen-jochum-choral-recordings-on-philips/ “A loving, supple, dramatic and colourful reading, with much ebb and flow.” Choral Music on Record, 1991 (Bach: St. Matthew Passion) https://www.allmusic.com/album/bach-matth%C3%A4us-passion-bruckner-te-deum-mw0003014339/user-reviews Davis Smith November 26, 2019 "This is an absolute gem of a recording that needs to be the top recommendation for the SMP whenever someone is new to the work. More than any other Bach work touched by the HIP movement, I feel that this one suffers the most when subjected to speedy tempi, light textures, and curt choral phasing. When I hear Gardiner, Harnoncourt, and Herreweghe take the emotionally devastating opening chorus at the clip of a Brandenburg Concerto movement, I am not only annoyed but indignant. When I hear one of the most moving arias ever penned, “Mache Dich Mein Herze Rein” sung in a lilting, flippant manner, I feel like I am being deprived of the real meaning of the music. Now, if all you want out of the Passion is a theatrical, fast-paced story to enjoy, those recordings are perfect. But I don’t view the Passion that way. Jochum brings the same signature warmth, subtle intensity, lustrous beauty, and immense dedication that makes him one of the greatest conductors of Germanic repertoire to this great composition and the results are simply wonderful. How that opening chorus is handled really does set the table for the proceedings that subsequently unfold, and he chooses a speed that rolls along nicely and throbs with the requisite anguish while maintaining flexibility and reverence. Klemperer and Richter are simply too slow here, and Jochum does it the right way. The singing of the chorales, one of my favorite elements of the Passion which are often undermined in other performances, is handled with the proper finesse and weight. The soloists may not be household names, but I find their contributions consistently above average (then again, I always skip the recitatives; a bad habit that I probably need to change). Try Harnoncourt, Gardiner, Klemperer, and others, and if you find them too extreme to one end or the other, try Jochum’s blissful happy medium."