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Bach, St Matthew Passion (London Concert): Soloists, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra  St Thomas' Boys Choir, Tölz Boys Choir, Riccardo Chailly, Barbican, London 5.4.2009 (GD)

Sybella Rubens (replacing Christina Landshamer) -  soprano
Marie-Claude Chappuis -  mezzo-soprano
Johannes Chum -  tenor  - Evangelist
Maxmillian Schmitt tenor
Thomas Quasthoff - bass/baritone
Hanno Muller-Brachmann  - bass-baritone - Christus
Klaus Hager - bass - Pilate/Peter/Judas


Overall,  this was a most impressive rendition of Bach's greatest work in the Sacred Passion mode. Although Chailly deployed quite large forces (over 80 boys in the choir, and a large string compliment in both orchestras) he made extensive use of 'authentic' performing practices whilst deploying modern orchestral instruments. He choose consistently swift tempi, and delivered a crisp clarity, taking care over matters like dotted rhythms and dynamics, judicious use of appoggiatura, and an absolute minimum of string/vocal vibrato - particularly applying to the boys chorus: all of this  despite the revered Leipzig tradition going back to Bach himself as a St Thomaskirche kantor. But one aspect of 'period', or 'authentic' performing practice is to re-create the original sound that Bach would have known.  With this in mind I found myself  wanting a more plangent/acerbic tone from the important woodwind contributions especially the oboi da caccia: although the woodwinds played with beauiful phrasing/clarity in the great ariosos and arias there was a tendency towards a kind of  creamy modern homogeneity to their sound, quite out of character with the more dramatically poignant moments. However, the great opening double chorus between the 'Daughters of Zion' and the patient faithful,  had a real sense of flow to it.

The interpolated German 'Angus Dei' chorale ('O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig') for 'ripieno' choir could have rung out with more  clarity and there was a certain lightness about the whole approach (too light?) whic missed the music's final 'tragic' modulation from G major back to the opening funeral tread of E minor; so powerfully realised in Klemperer's  more monumental approach. And at the risk of being called old fashioned, I do prefer a mixed choir with women's voices with the part for boys reserved for the 'ripieno' sections. After a while,  the all male choir, although always in tune and accurate in delivery, sounded too tonally homogenous, lacking the vocal diversity of a mixed gender choir.

Although Chailly did see the monumental work as a whole, with consistent tempo/dynamic relationships, I felt at times a kind of efficient sameness as the drama unfolded. The work is in some ways a sacred oratorio (the 'passion' as play and musical drama has its roots in the Middle Ages) but it is also a drama dealing with the Gospel narrative describing the lead-up to trial of Jesus, his execution, and his resurrection. Sections of the passion like Judas's betrayal, the 'Last Supper', Peter's denial, Christ before Pilate, the 'Crucifixion', need to have matching registers of dramatic/reflective inflection and difference. But in other respects Chailly did manage dramatic contrast exceptionally well as in the great duet just before the end of the first part,  'So ist mein Jesus nun gefangen' for soprano and alto, a march like canon lamenting on the arrest of Jesus. This canonic duet is interspersed with shouts from the chorus to 'let the Saviour be', to 'bind him not', and here Chailly and the second choir managed this with just the right dramatic contrast and charge. The sense of drama continued into a most vividly realised 'thunder and lightening' chorus on full orchestra and chorus.  Also,  the great double chorus which concludes the first part,  'O Mensch, bewein' was beautifully contoured and delineated, although again I didn't have that awed sense  of the guilt, of mankind's guilt, Oh man, weep for thy great sin' that is felt in the already mentioned classic Klemperer recording. Chailly's reading just sounded like a superbly prepared rendition of one of the greatest baroque choruses in existence; which upon reflection might actually  be enough.  Do we really want too much guilt carried over to our very secular age?

The trial of Christ under Pilate took its course very well, with the crowd choruses ('turba), 'Let him be crucified'  sounding suitably dramatic and frenzied. And despite recent historical evidence which seems to refute the narrative of  Pilate freeing Barabas, and being influenced by the dream his wife had, the whole trial section has an almost operatic dramatic attraction, especially with the beautiful soprano aria 'Aus liebe will mein Heiland sterben' reflecting on the Savour's sacrifice as the 'Son of Man', quite well sung by tonight's stand-in soprano Sybella Rubens'.  It seems that in reality Pontius Pilate, as the Fifth Procurator of Judea, would  simply not have had enough time for such niceties. It is also questionable whether, in reality, members of the Holy family, after the burial of Christ, would have directly gained permission from Pilate himself regarding post-burial precautions;  maybe a messenger from Pilate would have been more likely?  The beautifully direct chorales that punctuate the narrative (mostly of Lutheran derivation) sound most effective, in the sense of the  communal devotion of Bach's day,  when played in a direct, almost austere manner:  although of course in terms of dynamic markings,  some of the chorales in sotto voce have a more reflective tone - as when considering Christ's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane - and a more affirmative forte register when projecting the enduring qualities of the Christian message. Tonight all the chorales were skillfully sung and moulded, but I did wonder why Chailly chose to introduce some rather  fussy sounding dynamic modifications, with sudden decrescendos for example. For me, these indiosyncrasies partially robbed these wonderful pieces of their simple and noble strength.

The great final chorus 'Wir setzen uns mit Tranen nieder' in C minor, which fascinatingly links with the E major triad of the opening chorus, as its harmoinic goal, opened resplendently with the ring and tonal weight  of full choir and orchestra. But at its final statement, after the reflective middle section on the 'sweet repose' of the Saviour, Chailly played it more mezzo-forte. I can't think of any musical dramatic justification for this. If the mood of stoical resolution is carried through until the end, with a final and slight decrescendo reflecting human awe and doubt through guilt,  the mood of troubled resolution registers very well of itself without such dynamic emendations. 

Most of the soloists were excellent,  but special praise must go to mezzo-soprano Marie-Claude Chappuis, bass - baritone Thomas Quasthoff, and the Evangelist tenor  Johannes Chum. Chappus sang her first aria 'Buss nd Reu' with just the right degree of stoical resolution as befits a denunciation of a woman who disputed the use of ointment for the Saviour's grave in the opening 'Anointing in Bethany ' section. Similarly her 'Konnen Tranen meiner Wangen',  lamenting on the scourging of Christ under Pilate had the right sense of human pathos inflected with the pre- ordained sacrifice and salvation at the heart of Christianity. Even if she didn't quite match the alto richness of a Christa Ludwig, she more than made up for it with  her clear, expressive German diction,  her clarity and superbly apt  phrasing for each aria.

Clarity, restraint, and phrasing were also cardinal features of Chum's Evangelist. He inflected every trope with a  sense of narrative unfolding, and didn't overdo the famous expressive recitative depicting Peter's third Denial before the cock-crow, as predicted by Jesus. Similarly,  Chum superbly realised and clarified  the 'rending of the veil of the temple' after Christ's death; projecting the right degree of drama but never succumbing to vocal histrionics, as is sometimes the case. Quasthoff was marvellous in his first bass G minor aria 'Gerne will ich bequemen' reflecting on the consolation offered in the next world by taking up the Saviour's bitter chalice of grief. Every phrase was beautifully shaped within a vocal range which negotiated a diversity of tonal, harmonic/lyrical shifts and contrasts. To think that older performing traditions from the likes of Mengelberg and Furtwängler simply cut this and many other beautiful arias!  Similarly,  Quasthoff excelled in the last of the solo arias,  'Mach dich, mein Herze, rein' in E major reflecting on the joy and rest gained through partaking in everlasting peace through the saviour's death. His 'Welt geh' aus, lass Jesum ein' the salvation of the world by the light of Christ, really filled the whole hall with its tone of Christian beatitude.

As implied above,  although Sybella Rubens (standing at short notice for Chritina Landshamer) sang adequately, it was never more than that, and no match for Chappuis's superb mezzo contribution. Much the same can be said of Maximilian Schmitt in the tenor arias. And although Klaus Hager was good as the combined characters of Pilate, Peter and Judas his overdone rolled r in Judas's 'sei'st du, Rabbi,  did not add much to the proceedings. Hanno Muller-Brachmann's Christus did not entirely erase my memories of Fischer Dieskau but he did deliver the role in an earnest, if rather four-square manner with Chailly always clearly delineating Bach's superbly crafted and beautifully effective string halo around the sacred voice.

Tovey once said that if only the chorus 'Wahrlich, dieser ist Gottes Sohn gewesen' (Truly this was the Son of God) a beautifully composed ascending, descending choral palindrome sung by the Centurion and his men after Christ's death on the cross, was by some dreadful fatality, the only surviving piece of Bach's music, he would be seen as one of the few truly great composers by future generations. This might seem an exaggeration, especially in our age of scepticism and cultural/global relativisation of such values; especially 'eurocentric' Christian inflected values. But in a sense, Tovey has a point. Whether you come to this great work from a Christian, agnostic, secular, or purely musical perspective - as I tend to do, there is no denying that something of that greatness or musical sincerity comes across regardless of performing style or tradition. Bach's great Passion can  transcend all performing fashions/contexts, while at the same time remaining firmly very much within Bach's own historical era. Tonight,  that special quality came across despite the reservations I had about some aspects of the performance with a sense of of absolute integrity and compositional genius; another unfashionable term, but I can think of no other.

Perhaps these qualities are as valuable now, in our own troubled dumbed-down times, as  they were in the troubled times when Christ, Pontius Pilate (and indeed Bach in  Europe)  existed as real people caught up in the complexities of politics, religion, ethics and conflicting ideas.

Geoff Diggines


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