Helmut Rilling’s Bach still has not received the acclaim it surely deserves, particularly from the critical community in English-speaking countries. The reasons are not hard to fathom: he hasn’t toured or conducted frequently outside of Germany (aside from the Oregon Bach Festival, one of America’s best kept musical secrets), and his work competes directly with the many authentic instrument groups in the U.K. and France, and so faces an uphill battle against some pretty entrenched musical interests. But there’s no question in my mind that he is one of our great Bach conductors, and this new recording of the B minor Mass bears this out. One of the most satisfying things about Rilling’s Bach series has been his undogmatic approach to the question of performance practice. While mindful of the latest research (indeed, as director of the Stuttgart Bach Institute, he has been directly involved with much of it), he never lets theory dictate the purely musical values of his performances. And so his excellently trained chorus includes women singers, and he always assembles the finest possible line-up of mature, properly trained vocal soloists.
His vocal team here, which includes the excellent Sibylla Rubens (lately of the Herreweghe St. Matthew Passion on Harmonia Mundi), Andreas Schmidt, and Thomas Quasthoff–to list only the most familiar–is second to none. In the choral movements, Rilling ensures perfect contrapuntal clarity, aided by an ideal balance between orchestra and chorus. The conclusion of the Credo, for example, permits the trumpets and drums (and even the flutes) to really cut through the texture with the necessary brilliance without ever obscuring the voices. And throughout the work, Rilling’s tempos allow the music to breathe naturally, offering excitement without hysteria, and repose without dullness. The two Kyrie fugues sound imposing but never grim, and the six-part Sanctus really swings. After a lifetime of devotion to Bach’s music, Rilling has recorded a B minor Mass that serves as a crowning achievement in Hänssler’s complete Bach Edition, and a further vindication of his personal, supremely musical view of this composer’s immortal music.
