Andrew Parrott, Bach's B Minor Mass

For what it's worth, here's the L.A. Times review of the Parrott
concert.

http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Calendar-X!ArticleDetail-47696,00.html

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Saturday, December 1, 2001

MUSIC REVIEW
A Classic, Re-Imagined, Thrills Anew
British conductor Andrew Parrott strips down and speeds up Bach's
B-Minor Mass, revealing many often hidden pleasures.

By MARK SWED, Times Music Critic

Bach's Mass in B Minor is a work of art that hands out epiphanies
as generously as any in Western culture, especially in the transforming
power of its final prayer for peace, Dona Nobis Pacem. In a great
performance (even in just a pretty good performance), chorus, audience
and music can all seem connected in the glow of humanity.
The performance Thursday night that Andrew Parrott, the noted
British specialist in period practice, conducted with the Philharmonia
Baroque at the Irvine Barclay Theatre took none of this for granted,
however. Parrott's historical research has convinced him that the
essence of the B-Minor Mass is not where we have always found it, in
the communal power of inspiring music sung by massed voices.
Bach, he suggests, had a single singer to a part, the choral sections
assumed by the same singers who handled the solos.
Indeed, Parrott explained in a lecture before the performance how
he was put off by the overly pious British choral tradition that
characterized the performances of the B-Minor Mass he heard as a boy.
And that is something he has now expunged with a vengeance as
he has attempted to return the Mass to something closer to what he
suspects Bach originally had in mind.
Parrott's B-Minor Mass makes a radically different impression
than it does even in the hands of other historically minded performers.
For
one thing, this was the most modern-sounding performance of the piece
I have ever heard. Whatever history tells us, our ears heard
something not old but new Thursday night, a familiar piece taken out
of the context of its own performance history (it was never performed in

Bach's lifetime) and now presented in an entirely fresh and new
manner.
Parrott's version, in fact, strikes the modern ear as essentially
Postmodern--Bach deconstructed. Hearing a choral work sung one to the
part, we first notice what is missing. The flesh has been removed and
the structure revealed. Gone, too, are the comfort and safety of
numbers, replaced by individuals dangerously exposed.
That danger seemed to be just what Parrott thrived on most. He
goaded his performers with no more mercy than a Marine sergeant.
Tempos verged on the impossibly fast. More than once, one sat on the
seat's edge nervously thrilled, worried about a rhythmic train wreck. It

wasn't just the soloists, but also the members of the orchestra who
were brought to the brink of performability by incautious tempos. But
that also made heroes out of the concertmaster, solo trumpet and horn
and two beguiling oboe d'amore players.
The five solo singers--sopranos Barbara Borden and Ellen Hargis,
mezzo-soprano Jennifer Lane, tenor Marc Molomot and bass Curtis
Streetman--were riveting. Parrott pushed them to their limits, and in
so doing, they became dramatic characters in their own right.
Placing such demands on the soloists, however, would have made it
impossible for them to maintain this incendiary tension throughout
the nearly two-hour piece, so Parrott had a small chorus of 10, five
on either side of the stage, to periodically spell the soloists. The
ancillary
singers became a rudimentary chorus and proved a pleasure.
Ultimately, Parrott's performance was as much about the conductor
as it was about Bach and his time. Parrott, who has an emotional
style of waving his hands about, becomes very excited by the inner
dynamics of this music, and he has the knack to make that excitement
visceral in performance. Still, I wonder how much that has to do with
actually taking us back to Bach.
At this performance, my impression was not unlike the one I get
these days when I walk by the construction site of the Disney Concert
Hall, peering up at the complex steel skeleton and watching the
metallic skin go on. I am thrilled by what I see and muse about what it
will
be like when it's fleshed out.
Likewise, by capturing the structural drama of the B Minor,
Parrott's performance proved an excellent occasion to begin musing about

fleshing out the Mass as a stage work, which is exactly what Los
Angeles Opera will do in two months' time. The controversy has just
begun.

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

In a message dated 12/1/01 12:33:34 PM Eastern Standard Time,
ricktagawa@earthlink.net writes:

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Thanks, Rick. I'm sure it was a great performance, especially because of how
the review was written. Mark Swed seemed to be waiting for a failure that
never occurred. When a reviewer has a predetermined view it usually colors
his perception, and veritably dictates the review. This seems a good bit.
Mr. Swed called me from L.A. just before my Charles Ives premiere to ask me
why I bothered. He said it's already been done. I explained that it was a
completely different work and he seemed to be increasingly disappointed.

Re Bach performance: if Parrott had tuned to Werckmeister chromatic then the
tempi would no doubt be slower. It is a correspondent factor to the
tuning...there is more to listen for, phrasing takes on more breath of space.

Best, Johnny Reinhard

Johnny!
i believe your statement here is actually more far reaching. Many
tunings encompass acoustical phenomenon that requires slower moving
parts. When the phenomenon reaches great proportions then one tends to
stop all moment altogether. Still there are all types of degrees
in-between these two extremes. It is something i see in those beginning
is that many of the old tempos and patterns don't work well or often
they will pass through a chord that just cries to sustain even a beat or
two longer. When one changes tuning, one has to change many perimeters.

Afmmjr@aol.com wrote:

> It is a correspondent factor to the tuning...there is more to listen
> for, phrasing takes on more breath of space.

-- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
http://www.anaphoria.com

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