J.S. Bach: h-moll Messe

Konzertkritiken

Polyphonie bis in die feinsten Verästelungen

Unter dem Dirigenten Konrad Junghänel erklang [Bachs h-moll Messe] als ein vokal-instrumentaler Kosmos von selten erreichter Durchhörbarkeit. Die immer wieder geführte Diskussion über die Grösse von Bachs Chor erscheint hinfällig angesichts eines Ensembleklangs, der vor allem im beschwingten zweiten Teil die Polyphonie bis in die feinsten Verästelungen belebt und ihren Reichtum in neuer Konzentration hörbar macht.
Neue Züricher Zeitung, 11.4.2006

Australia Bach 2000

...First Cantus Cölln doing J. S. Bach's Mass in B-Minor. A small orchestra, eight singers, a young conductor with a mediaeval face and the weirdest fluffed-out bob I have ever seen on a human head....Guilt faded as the Cranach-coiffed conductor raised his arms and away I slid, into the same listening pattern I go through when confronting a big mass, a Wagner opera or a murder trial: five minutes of tingling adrenalin, then fifteen of resistance and twitchy limbs, followed by a sudden deepening of attention and a plunge into a concentration so intense that it shuts out the rest of the world. There where moments when the three woman soloists of Cantus Cölln, leaning forward wide-eyed and eager, gave forth a stream of song so natural and brightly flowing that they might have been birds in a mighty forest and spring: Osanna in excelsis! At the end the whole cathedral, or so I thought, leapt to his feet and shouted with joy...
Helen Garner, The Age, 25.10.2000