These marvellous pieces must be the very devil to sing. Many of our readers will have been introduced to them (on Decca, 4/75 – nla) by the Schutz Choir under Sir Roger Norrington, who said of the Deutsche Motette, with its four-octave range and 23 independent parts, that it “may be the hardest choral work, of a tonal nature, ever written”. I shouldn’t think the others are far behind, especially the scherzo Putzzimmer and the blissfully elaborate Daphne. The BBC Singers (with King’s boys in the last-named) do wonders in terms of sheer accuracy, range and sustaining power. They are also lively, expressive and clear, yet it is perhaps in these aspects of performance that they meet with stiffest competition from the Danish National Radio Choir, who are their immediate predecessors.
That earlier recording has the advantage of a less reverberant acoustic, enabling them to risk somewhat faster speeds, and certainly helping in the light, darting movement of Die Gottin im Putzzimmer (“The Goddess in the Boudoir”). Both performances of that work are brilliantly accomplished (I wonder, incidentally, how it would sound with solo voices, perhaps in two teams, one to relieve the other), but the Danes are that bit livelier and clearer, certainly better at the upspringing “Plotzlich” as Belinda (or whoever) stands fully adorned and ready for the fray. In An den Baum Daphne the entrance of the boys is rather stronger in the Danish performance (though the King’s soloist is better at the end), and in the Deutsche Motette choral tone is finer-grained and more homogeneous. In Der Abend the BBC Singers achieve a more impressive crescendo towards “Senke den Wagen hinab”. They also include the Op. 45 male-voice choruses, the third of which is attractive. I would not want to exchange the Chandos record for this, but in buying afresh it would be as well to consider both. Whatever the choice, the wonder is constant, whether of the expert performances or of the works themselves, miracles of skill and imagination.
JBS