Taverner Consort and Players, Andrew Parrott - J.S. Bach: Trauer-Music - Music to Mourn Prince Leopold (2011)

Buyers should note that the music contained here is not the Cantata No. 198, BWV 198, known as the Trauer-Ode or Mourning Ode for Christiane Eberhardine, the Electress of Saxony, although it does contain music from that work. What's presented here is a reconstruction of a piece Bach is known to have composed, a setting of Trauer-Musik or Funeral Music for Prince Leopold of Cöthen, Bach's longtime patron. The text of the work, by Christian Friedrich Henrici (known as Picander, and the author of the St. Matthew Passion text), exists, and Bach is known to have written music for it, now lost. The commission came in on short notice, and conductor and reconstructor Andrew Parrott is arguing not only that what's heard here is plausible but that Bach actually might have used these works in the manner presented here. The sources are the Trauer-Ode and the St. Matthew Passion itself, with the recitatives as Parrott's only original contribution. Does it work? Certainly Bach was an inveterate recycler of his own works, although those of the stature of the St. Matthew Passion are less often treated in this way. It's a bit of a shock to hear the aria "Erbarme dich" from the "Passion redone as Erhalte mich" (track 15). But ultimately the chief issue for the listener may be the questionable one-voice-per-part performance of Parrott's Taverner Consort & Players; the fact that Bach's music was demonstrably performed this way does not mean Bach would have considered such a performance ideal or even desirable. Those agreeable to this method, however, will find this an interesting curiosity, with the intimate, dark tones of the Taverner Players lingering nicely over the intense dissonances in Bach's music. All four soloists are very good, and at least one, bass Thomas Meglioranza, is a newcomer. Fine engineering from the church of St. Michael & All Angels in Oxford, with quiet but colorful sounds, adds to the overall appeal.