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AND HEARD BBC PROMENADE CONCERT REVIEW
Prom 51 - Bach, St John Passion. Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, cond. Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Royal Albert Hall, London, 24. 08. 2008. (ME)
‘The story of a man being tortured, humiliated and crucified should not leave us untroubled and reflecting only on the beauty of the music’ according to Mark Padmore in his characteristically sensitive notes. How true, and it was in this area that this performance excelled, delineating for us all the cruelties and indignities suffered and all the touching attempts which we make to comprehend this story and relate it to our own lives. For me the greatest of all Bach’s chorales is ‘Er nahm alles wohl in acht’ where we are urged to emulate the example of Christ on the cross not in the endurance of suffering but in acting rightly, loving our fellow man as much as God. Here ‘O Mensch, mache Richtigkeit, / Gott und Menschen liebe’ was the most persuasively sung part of the evening. Drama was also much in evidence in Padmore’s anguished narration, although some might wish for more beauty of tone in parts; however this Evangelist is not the detached observer but one who readily sacrifices elegance of line to verbal nuance – the big test surely comes early on in ‘Als nun Jesus wusste Alles, was ihm begegnen sollte’ and he passed this with emphatic skill.
Elsewhere, things were less than ideal. The Chorales were sometimes rather lumpy in presentation, and Peter Harvey’s Christus, although with his usual beautiful tone, was somewhat muted on this occasion. The major weakness was the vocal soloists: I’ve written in the past about following the ‘authentic’ style of having arias sung by ‘members of the choir,’ and of course we all know that that is what would have been the practice in Bach’s time. But this isn’t 1724, and when one can click on the CD to hear, say, Thomas Quasthoff singing ‘Mein teurer Heiland’ it’s difficult not to expect something at least similar in performance. Matthew Brook was a wonderfully convincing Pilate, but his arias were underpowered, as were those of Robin Blaze whose delicate voice is not suited to this auditorium. Both tenors also struggled with their music, and although Katharine Fuge conveyed the eagerness of ‘Ich folge dir gleichfalls,’ she found the music challenging in parts.
No criticism of the wonderful continuo playing, with Danny Yeadon’s Viola da Gamba and cello providing constant joy in ‘Es ist vollbracht!’ and ‘Mein teurer Heiland’ respectively. Evangelina Mascardi’s lute winds around the ‘Himmelsschlüsselblume’ in ‘Betrachte, meine Seel’ with Kati Debretzeni’s violin eloquently pointing up the restive quality of this wonderful arioso.
The Monteverdi choir was at its best in the great accusatory scenes, absolutely searing in lines such as ‘Weg, weg mit dem, kreuzige ihn!’ and although I did not warm to the style of singing in some of the Chorales, there were many moments, such as during ‘Ach Herr, lass dein lieb’ Engelein’ where you felt that the choir was speaking for the audience, who of course in 1724 would themselves have been singing from the pews. No one can fail to be moved by the St John Passion, and Gardiner’s affection for it was evident in every phrase, but stronger soloists are really needed if the work is to engage today’s audiences as it should.
Melanie Eskenazi