In March 1829 the young Felix Mendelssohn conducted a performance of the
Matthäus-Passion in Berlin. According to the booklet notes this was
the first performance of the work for almost one hundred years. It was a
great success, so much so that the work was repeated twice in the following
few weeks. Subsequent performances in other German cities followed and in
1841 Mendelssohn conducted another, in the Thomaskirche itself in
Leipzig.
That much I knew – or some of it. What I had not realised until receiving
this set for review was the extent of the cuts and changes that Mendelssohn
felt obliged to make to the score. Some of these changes were occasioned by
the fact that instruments such as the viola da gamba and the
oboe da
caccia and
oboe d’amore were no longer in common currency.
Other modifications were made in order to render the work acceptable to a
nineteenth-century concert audience. No fewer than ten arias were
jettisoned. So too were four recitatives and five chorales and over thirty
changes – notational and excisions - were made to the Evangelist’s
narrative. Some alto solos, including ‘Buß und Reu’ and ‘Erbarme dich’, were
allocated instead to the soprano voice. For the 1841 performance Mendelssohn
reversed some of the cuts, restoring four arias and a chorale. It is this
version of the score that Jan Willem de Vriend presents here. Modern
instruments, including clarinets, were used by Mendelssohn, as is the case
here. The continuo is provided by two cellos, playing double stops, and a
double bass. All this information, and more, is provided in the booklet.
What all this means is that the nature of the work is altered; much of its
contemplative, reflective aspect is sacrificed and the focus is shifted
towards the Passion Gospel narrative. Such sublime arias as ‘Ich will dir
mein Herze schenken’, ‘Konnen Tränen meiner Wangen’ and ‘Komm, süßes Kreuz’
will not be found here. Bach devotees will regret their omission but I don’t
believe we should castigate Mendelssohn for making the cuts. He was anything
but an insensitive musician, as his own compositions amply demonstrate, and
we must presume he was able to judge the likely taste of an 1829 audience. I
suppose Bach’s masterpiece would have been revived eventually but
Mendelssohn made that happen when it did and for that we owe him a debt of
gratitude.
The opening chorus of Part I is largely as one would expect in a modern
instrument performance except that the chorale, ‘O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig’,
is sung not by a
ripieno choir of sopranos or trebles but by the
solo quartet. We notice modifications to the Evangelist’s recitatives fairly
early on: in the very first one the line is modified so as to omit the top
As. To be honest, the modifications aren’t too significant in Part I – and I
find it hard to see why Mendelssohn made these small changes of notation.
The major alterations come in Part II where quite a number of significant
cuts are made to the Evangelist’s recitatives. Interestingly, all of the
Christus recitatives are left unaltered.
The first big change that listeners will notice is that ‘Du lieber
Heiland’ and the aria, ‘Buß und Reu’ that follows are given to the soprano
soloist rather than the alto. We’re told in the notes that for the 1829
performance Mendelssohn’s cuts didn’t leave enough for the soprano soloists
at his disposal to sing so the alto lost some solos. As the original keys
are preserved in the re-allocated solos it means that quite a bit of the
music is rather low-lying for a soprano but Judith van Wanroij manages well
enough. In ‘Buß und Reu’ the
da capo is omitted except for its
orchestra introduction, which thus becomes a postlude. ‘Ich will dir mein
Herze schenken’ and its preceding recit are cut, as are ‘Gerne will ich mich
bequemen’ and its recit.
In Part II, as well as quite a number of cuts to the Evangelist’s part we
lose the tenor aria ‘Geduld!’ as well as the preceding recit. Later ‘Erbarme
dich’ is sung by the soprano rather than the alto. Again, much of the line
lies quite low for a soprano. A fairly fleet tempo is adopted for this aria
by de Vriend – I would have preferred it just a fraction slower. There are
two short passages (bar 32 and bars 39-40) where the vocal line is
completely altered into something much higher and, frankly showy. These two
changes may be Mendelssohn’s work but if so they are the only instances of a
significant modification to the vocal line that I detected in any aria. I
have to say that I found them tasteless. The heavenly aria ‘Aus Liebe will
mein Heiland sterben’ is not omitted but listeners will notice a significant
difference here and in the recit that precedes it. Mendelssohn allotted the
oboe da caccia parts to clarinets and their mellow tone gives a
softer hue to the accompaniments, which is interesting to hear though I’m
sorry that we’re deprived of the instrumental postlude to the aria.
Mendelssohn left out ‘Konnen Tränen meiner Wangen’ though, oddly, the
preceding recitativo remains. The recit before ‘Komm, süßes Kreuz’ is
omitted, as is the aria itself, the latter a grievous loss. ‘Mache dich,
mein Herze, rein’ was left in – and the supple clarinets replace the
oboi da caccia – but not only did Mendelssohn omit the
da
capo but also the central section of the aria, which rather emasculates
it.
Several chorales are omitted in the course of the work but all the
choruses themselves are retained intact.
It’s right to list the significant modifications to Bach’s text and some
may consider all this to be an act of butchery. However, I suspect
Mendelssohn’s view was that half a loaf was better than no bread and his
version is a key event in the performance history of the
Matthäus-Passion. The score is pretty well served by de Vriend and
his team. The recitatives are well paced and the tempi adopted for the
choruses and arias strike me as judicious. On the whole de Vriend takes a
broad approach to the chorales, certainly by comparison with some ‘period’
performances I’ve heard. Having said that, he doesn’t allow them to drag and
the tempi are suitable as they ensure that the chorales are appropriately
reflective.
The five principal soloists do well. Both Judith van Wanroij and Helena
Rasker have strong, expressive voices and they’re not afraid to warm the
tone with vibrato. The style would be inappropriate for a ‘period’
performance but this is an account of Mendelssohn’s early-Romantic take on
the score so it fits. Jörg Dürmüller and Maarten Koningsberger do the tenor
and bass arias well. Marcos Fink is an authoritative and convincing Jesus
though occasionally I had the impression that his high notes were just a
little pressured. Jörg Dürmüller tells the story in a forthright way. He
sings well and his performance is by no means devoid of expression. However,
I certainly don’t hear the poetry and sensitivity that singers such as
James Gilchrist or
Mark Padmore bring to the role of the Evangelist.
The contribution of Consensus Vocalis is very fine. I don’t know how large
the choir was for this performance – 22 singers are shown in the publicity
photograph in the booklet but it sounds like a slightly more substantial
group is involved. The choral singing is flexible and there’s ample body of
tone, though the results are never too heavy. The engineers have presented
an excellent and natural division between Choirs I and II, which is so
important in this work. The orchestra plays with sensitivity and finesse.
The sound is rich but never cloying and the players are able to invest
passages such as ‘Sind Blitze, sind Donner’ with fire and excitement. At
first I thought that the string continuo group was a touch on the heavy side
but my ears soon adjusted.
Clearly, this can’t be a library choice for the
Matthäus-Passion
but it’s a valuable supplement to performances of Bach’s standard text. Yes,
there are significant cuts but I would urge people to look beyond them and
to experience Mendelssohn’s important evangelical work on Bach’s behalf for
themselves. I don’t know if the Mendelssohn version has been recorded before
– this isn’t claimed as a first recording – but opportunities to experience
it will not come frequently and it is most interesting to hear.
It remains to say the SACD sound is very good indeed. The recording was
made at a live performance but though I could sometimes hear the performers
standing up to sing – and these weren’t distracting at all – the audience
was commendably silent throughout. There’s no applause at the end. There’s a
useful booklet note in English as well as German which makes the decision
not to supply an English translation of the words rather a surprise.
Jan Willem de Vriend has a Mendelssohn symphony cycle in progress for
Challenge Classics of which I have heard the Second Symphony (
review). Dominy Clements
reviewed the volume containing the First and Fourth
symphonies. I don’t know if the other two symphonies have yet appeared.
However, the composer’s version of the
Matthäus-Passion is an
unexpected bonus to the symphonies. I wonder if de Vriend intends to record
St. Paul and
Elijah? I do hope so.
John Quinn
