Title: HIPster Wars - News from the Bach Front - Communiqué 34
Product review: As if inspired by Stockhausen, I am more than prepared to believe that this 1980 performance of the B Minor Mass by Eugene Jochum was recorded underwater and at full fathom five. Or perhaps it is a mystical appreciation of the One as the Cloud of Unknowing.Trust me on this: when the infamous Karajan alternative from 1974 - the Festival of Soup (Bach: Mass in B minor) - is streets ahead in terms of clarity, presence, diction and the separation of powers, it is time to complain.It is impossible to comment on the mettle of the soloists in this EMI performance. They look B-grade on paper (in a non-perfunctory sense) but perhaps on the day they surpassed themselves or fell to the rung below. Who is to know?I like Jochum's pacing in the work but that's the only surety I have.This early digital recording should come with a fog-horn: Ooooooooooooooooo-rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.Bach J.S: Mass in B Minor / Cantata Bwv 56
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