Edith Mathis (1938-2025), was a Swiss soprano who surely was one of the most admired artists in the second half of the 20th century.
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| Edith Mathis |
As Norman Lebrecht wrote the other day, "There has been a muted response to the death this week of the eminent soprano Edith Mathis, Mozart star of the Karajan years at the Vienna Opera and, later on, one of the most exquisite Lieder singers of record. Never as famous as Schwarzkopf or Christa Ludwig, Mathis shunned flamboyance and focused on the musical and emotional core of a song. She was deeply, if not loudly, loved."
Lebrecht quotes Jürgen Kesting's assessment in the Frankfurter Allgemeine: "The voice of Edith Mathis, born in Lucerne, was a gift to lovers of what is lyrical and quiet in the world of music and, to put it paradoxically, to music lovers who think with their hearts. The seraphic beauty of her singing was the sensual manifestation of the spiritual."
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| Anna Reynolds |
With this in mind, it may be appropriate to post one of Mathis' Bach recordings. Here she is heard in duet with contralto Anna Reynolds in the Cantata Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn (Thou God indeed and Son of David), BWV 23. This is the extent of Mathis' involvement in this 1973-74 set, but it is of interest otherwise, of course.
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| Karl Richter |
Let me quote Stereo Review's Stoddard Lincoln on the disc: "Karl Richter is well known as a Bach specialist through his many recordings and concerts with the Munich Bach Choir and Orchestra. Making no attempt to use old instruments or any authentic performance practice, he elicits for Deutsche Grammophon a sound that is thoroughly modern. He uses the best soloists he can find, and they often turn out to be top singers of opera and lieder rather than Baroque specialists. Purists may cavil at this, but the general listener can only rejoice in the results. The choral and orchestral sound is sumptuous, and the individual lines, while not articulated in the Baroque manner, are clean and beautifully projected. The solo singing, for the most part, is superb. Edith Mathis is a joy."
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| Peter Schreier |
Lincoln also praised tenor Kurt Equiluz, apparently confusing him with the excellent Peter Schreier, who is the tenor soloist in both cantatas.
Despite Lincoln's encomium, conductor Karl Richter very much divided opinion among critics. Here's Andrew Porter in High Fidelity: "Du wahrer Gott is a magnificent work that Bach composed, it seems, to demonstrate resourcefulness and mastery, when applying for the Leipzig job. But Richter trudges through it: his textures are thick and heavy. And so they are in Bisher habt ihr nichts gebelen, where his slow tempo makes the alto aria seem interminable, and the lilting 12/8 of the tenor aria (in a major key, after three arias in the minor) has no spring."
What one critic thinks is ponderous, another may consider monumental. Richter was an organist, and it is impossible to hear these performances without being reminded of that fact. Famous in his time - he was to live for just a few more years - even as these recordings were being released, his style was seemingly being eclipsed by the cantata recordings of Gustav Leonhardt and Nikolaus Harnoncourt that were being issued by DG Archiv's rival Telefunken Das Alte Werk. They were a harbinger of the historically informed performance practices that are now prevalent.
None of this gainsays the artistry displayed by Edith Mathis and all the singers and instrumentalists on this fine disc.
The download includes, as usual, full scans, including the texts and translations bound into the gatefold cover, along with the reviews cited above.
