The renewed interest in Mendelssohn’s oratorios continues apace with another recording of his Paulus. Herreweghe steers something of a middle course between Masur’s traditional approach and the asceticism of Spering with his small choir and orchestra. Like all Herreweghe’s performances of choral works, this one has a welcome unity of purpose in a reading notable for finely moulded choral singing and sensitively executed orchestral playing, all controlled by the conductor’s disciplined yet flexible beat. He is keenly aware of the need, in a somewhat diffuse work, for firm contrasts between the reflective and the dramatic. The Bachian chorales have real inwardness, the aggressive interventions of the Philistine, for example at the end of No. 38, “Steiniget ihn” (“stone him”), thrown at the converted Paul attempting good works, are splendidly vital. The whole has a secure and well-integrated profile.
This new version scores over both its rivals in having Matthias Gorne, the young German justly praised for his Lieder recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, in the title part. His mellow, vibrant baritone may not have quite the authority and ferocity of Adam (for Masur) as the unreformed Saul, but his tone falls more gratefully on the ear and he sings the wonderful aria “Gott sei mir gnadig” with nobility; here and elsewhere his mellow, sensitively contoured singing is balm to the ear. Unfortunately his soprano colleague is a hooty, uningratiating singer, no match in any way for Isokoski (Spering) or Janowitz (Masur). Herreweghe’s tenor, James Taylor, has sweet but somewhat insubstantial tone. He phrases the famous “Sei gretreten bis in der Tod”, taken at a deliberate tempo, with inner feeling, but so does Trost (Spering), even more Blochwitz (Masur), and they are the more positive interpreters.
If you want an intimate, small-scale reading, Herreweghe is the one to go for, greatly preferable to Spering, but if you prefer a larger, rather more inspiriting approach, I would still recommend Masur, a performance with no weaknesses and many strengths – but then you will deny yourself Gorne’s lovely singing.'