SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL CONCERT REVIEW
 

Bach,  Mass in B minor: Gerard Schwarz, cond., Sarah Coburn, soprano, Mary Phillips, mezzo-soprano, Stanford Olsen, Tenor, Charles Robert Austin, bass-baritone, Seattle Symphony Chorale, Seattle Symphony, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, 21.3.2008 (BJ)


Bach’s gigantic Latin Mass is several kinds of challenge for its performers, because it is several kinds of music. Less a “work” than a compilation, it was put together out of elements of which some were new and others were adaptations of material from earlier compositions. Among the latter, the Agnus Dei, a reshaping of the aria Ach bleibe doch from the cantata Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen, poses particular problems for the singer because of the rather tortuous word-setting Bach devised for the new Latin text. It was perhaps the most striking success of this performance that mezzo-soprano Mary Phillips delivered her part with glorious tone, graceful phrasing, and no verbal awkwardness at all.

Ms Phillips was indeed the outstanding soloist throughout. I had been particularly looking forward to hearing that superb artist Sarah Coburn sing the first-soprano solos, and she did indeed sing them very well, making an excellent blend with Ms Phillips in their Christe eleison duet, but tenor Stanford Olsen sang his part the Domine Deus so loudly that Ms Coburn could hardly be heard in this second duet, and in any case she did not seem to me to be quite in her best voice on this occasion. The two arias for low male voice really call, one for a baritone, the other for a bass. As often happens, a single singer was called on to perform both of the, and Charles Robert Olsen, aptly listed as a bass-baritone, coped admirably with the double task, partnered quite beautifully in Quoniam tu solus sanctus by John Cerminaro’s horn obbligato, which blended boldness and delicacy in ideal proportion. Another excellent solo instrumental contribution came from principal flute Scott Goff in the Benedictus, where Mr Olsen’s singing was much more in scale than in the Domine Deus, and the trio of trumpets led by David Gordon dispatched their many salvos in the bigger choruses brilliantly.

As to those choruses, the lower voices of Joseph Crnko’s Seattle Symphony Chorale offered some fine work, and diction was customarily clear, but I thought the sopranos somewhat lacking in sheer tonal heft. On the podium, Gerard Schwarz kept everything well in hand, and happily avoided any of the somewhat unstylish dynamic ebbs and flows that have once or twice disfigured his work in the baroque field. The greatest movements in the Mass, such as the Crucifixus with its heart-stopping closing modulation from E minor to G major, were shaped with poignant restraint and simplicity, and the transition from the triplet groups in the 4/4 Sanctus to the 3/8 meter of Pleni sunt coeli was managed perfectly, four bars of the latter clearly equaling one of the former.

Altogether, then, the disparate demands of the music was mostly well met. The result was an experience that I would call satisfying rather than revelatory–but then, despite the often stated opinion that this is one of Bach’s supreme masterpieces, I personally find the B-minor Mass a less gripping, less coherent, and certainly less moving composition than his St Matthew Passion. When, I wonder, are we going to hear that in Benaroya Hall?

Bernard Jacobson

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