Bach, St. John Passion: Collegium Vocale Gent. Phillipe Herreweghe (conductor). Christoph Prégardien (tenor/Evangelist), Konrad Jarnot (bass/Christus), Camilla Tilling (soprano), Ingeborg Danz (alto), Jan Kobow (tenor), Christian Immler (baritone/ Pilate), replacing the indisposed Peter Kooij. Barbican Hall, 5.04.07 (GD)



To my ears, Herreweghe and his superb Gent choir and orchestra are the ideal performers of Bach today. Their performances are not ultra ‘authentic’ in that they deploy period instruments but do not reduce the choral line to single voices for each vocal part. Also, Herreweghe deploys a degree of dramatic (not rhetorical) inflection, especially in the great choruses, which seems to me totally justified in relation to the dramatic nature of the music. Tonight, a sixteen strong choir was deployed and achieved superb vocal balance on their own, in the Lutheran chorales and in dialogue with the orchestra and vocalists. This superb clarity was immediately apparent in the first eighteen bars of the G minor bass throb which initiates the first great chorus, ‘Herr, unser Herrscher’. Although the St. John Passion is on a much smaller scale than the later St. Matthew Passion, and less elaborate in instrumentation and choral writing, it has, if anything a more immediate dramatic (dark) tone dealing, as it does, directly with the betrayal, capture, trial and execution of Christ.

Christoph Prégardien, as the Evangelist, unfolded the dramatic narrative throughout with great understanding and nuanced phrasing. Indeed, all the soloists were on top form tonight, despite a few quibbles I had. Ingeborg Danz sang in superb dialogue with woodwinds in her first alto aria, ‘Von den Stricken meiner Sunden’, the D minor oboes having a plangent, almost acerbic tone, more difficult (if not impossible) to cultivate on modern instruments. The Jesus of bass Konrad Jarnot had none of the portentous, heavy quality found in some of the older, more ‘traditional’ performers. He blended in more with the unfolding dramatic narrative; these qualities also applied to the replacement bass/Pilate of Christian Immler. The great F sharp minor aria depicting Peter’s anguish after his denial ‘Ach, mein Sinn’ was perfectly synchronised by tenor Jan Kobov with the chromatic string figurations, one never obscured by the other.

The choruses in the St. John Passion are an integral part of the drama in a way not recognised by earlier composers of the Passion like Buxtehude and Schutz, and indeed not even by Handel in his youthful ‘Brockes Passion’. The Gent choir tonight consistently (with Herreweghe) delineated each dramatic, reflective contour with astonishing understanding. The chorale ‘Petrus, der nicht denkt zurück’ which concludes the first part of the Passion, perfectly prefigured the great D minor chorus, which opens the second part; both in related ways, depicting the pathos/anger at Christ’s betrayal and brutal arrest, and the chorale’s depiction of Peter’s denial and anguish linking to the second part opening chorus’s bewailing of man’s guilt in relation to the wider unfolding of the Passion narrative.

The second half takes us into the essence of the drama, describing Pontius Pilate’s pangs of consciousness and the resulting tragedy in greater detail than the synopses offered by Matthew, Mark and Luke in the scriptural canon. The ‘turba’ (crowd choruses) are here mostly represented by the Jews who subject the sceptical and cowardly Roman governor to fanatical blackmail. Bach emphasises the dilemma in the fury and dramatic charge of the choruses here; in each successive choral declamation the chromatic/harmonic and polyphonic complexity increase, although this is never emphasised as mere polyphonic effect separate from the intrinsic drama. Christian Immler, as Pilate, intoned ‘Was ist Wahrheit’ (‘What is truth’) with a particular poignancy, giving pause to reflect on the enormous amount of philosophical/historical/theological debate Pilate’s ‘philosophical’ response to the heavenly truth of Christ this remark has provoked. The dramatic tension of the second part is only subdued with the wonderfully reflective tenor aria 'Erwage wie sei blutgefarber', which tenor Jan Kobow delineated in perfect accord with the beautiful instrumentation.

This accord continued to the end of the Passion, Herreweghe never deflecting from the increasingly contrasted and intense message of suffering, joy and salvation intrinsic to the narrative. Bach gives us a wonderfully intricate four-part quasi-fugue in the chorus depicting the soldiers dividing the crucified Christ’s clothes into four parts, ‘Lasset uns den nicht zerheilen’, here superbly contoured by Herreweghe; it is in details like this that one realizes in Bach’s genius the very apex of five hundred years of choral counterpoint. The reflective bass aria, ‘Eilt, ihr angefocht’nen Seelen’ with ripieno chorus was resolutely delivered by Konrad Jarnot, as was the Alto aria, ‘Es ist vollbracht’ with cello obbligato, Ingeborg Danz sustaining the sotto voce, slow tempo to moving effect. One of my particular favourites in all Bach is the final soprano aria, ‘Zerfliesse, mein Herze’, a funeral-like meditation on the dead Christ, with sombre woodwinds in B minor. Herreweghe’s lower register flutes here sounded quite haunting in their bass-line tread. Although Camilla Tilling sang this taxing piece well, I did find her top register slightly strident (maybe nerves?); but overall it did not deflect from the general excellence. The Evangelist (Christoph Prégardien) in his last narration dealing with the descent from the cross gave an extraordinarily detailed account.

The final great C minor chorus, ‘Ruht Wohl, Ihr heiligen Gebeine’ flowed in a way which reminded us that although the music is sombre, it is also a reflection on salvation and grace; ‘opening Heaven and closing Hell’… here Herreweghe’s incorporation of a dance-like inflection, especially in the upper beat, corresponded absolutely with the combined Christian message. This message of hope and redemption is compounded in the closing, ascending, beautifully simple, Lutheran chorale, ‘Ach Herr, lass dein lieb Engelein’, with its affirmative major key final declaration of eternal life after death through the resurrection.

Rather than playing the work (just over two hours) straight through it was decided to have a five minute interval between parts one and two. This didn’t really work because there was a great rush back into the hall, interfering with the opening of part two! It would have been better either to have a traditional fifteen minute break, or play the work straight through without interval as was advertised. And finally, in the first part of the Passion, just after Peter’s denial, a mobile phone started to ring, and the owner couldn’t seem to turn it off: short of instituting some airport style handing in of all mobiles, and search tactics, I don’t see what can realistically be done to prevent such occurrences – nevertheless, the performance remained an unique and inspiring musical event.

 

Geoff Diggines