The eminent Bach specialist Helmuth Rilling
may safely lay claim to be one of the conductors most intimate with
Bach’s music, since he is not only the editor of the complete Bachakademie,
comprising all of the composer’s works over 172 CDs, but also the only
conductor to have recorded all of Bach’s sacred cantatas. He brought
with him the choir whose original members were first assembled by him
in 1954 and which since then has risen to increasing eminence, as well
as the orchestra which he also founded in 1965, so it was hardly surprising
that this performance had an exceptional degree of individuality.
Rilling’s soloists were interestingly divided by gender
and experience; the two women were both veterans in this music, the
contralto in fact featuring on Rilling’s recording of the St. Matthew
Passion, but the four men were all fairly young and not well known in
this country. This may perhaps have accounted for the less than ideal
turnout for the concert; if Rilling had fielded, say, Quasthoff as the
Bass soloist (as on the aforementioned recording) and other better-known
singers in the other male parts, the hall would probably not have been
only two-thirds full. However, the loss was all that of those who failed
to show up, since whatever their youth or experience, all the soloists
gave performances which were never less than authentic, accurate and
committed, and frequently rose to heights of pathos and drama.
The Evangelist was Marcus Ullmann, whose London
debut at the Wigmore Hall last year was so eagerly anticipated and well
received, and he sang with sweet musicianship despite the beginnings
of a cold. This is not a highly charged, dramatic Evangelist in the
manner of Schreier or Ainsley, but a more lyrical singer after Partridge
or Padmore, and I felt that there were times when Rilling’s extremely
interventionist direction – even to indicating most of the notes with
his baton – was slightly hampering Ullmann’s freedom of expression.
Nevertheless, he did what all good Evangelists must, that is, he told
the story, without hand-wringing but plenty of pathos, and he rose to
all the great moments such as ‘Als nun Jesus wusste alles...’ and ‘Da
nahm Pilatus Jesum und geisselte ihn.’
The part of Christus was sung by Sebastian Noack,
a young protégé of Quasthoff, and it showed; his master’s
influence was apparent in every line, and that’s no bad thing, since
his voice is very beautiful indeed and he shaped his phrases with touching
grace. This was a notable assumption from a singer from whom I hope
to hear a great deal more. The bass arias were taken by the distractingly
handsome Morten Ernst Lassen who sang with unfailing accuracy
but little dramatic involvement, especially in ‘Mein Teurer Heiland’
where he lacked a sense of the real import of the words. James Taylor
acquitted himself honourably in the demanding tenor solos, the contralto
Ingeborg Danz sang elegantly although rather indistinctly in
her arias, and the soprano Sibylla Rubens brought all her charm
and energy to ‘Ich folge dir’ which she sang with bright tone and fluent
phrasing.
Rilling’s management of the orchestra led to some very
fine playing, but it was in the chorales that he really impressed; this
choir seem to be able to follow his every thought, and the result is
eerily perfect. Their singing is incisive, passionate where required
and always wonderfully reverent and moving; examples abound, but one
which could not fail to stay in the mind was the ending of ‘In meines
Herzens Grunde,’ where the final lines ‘Wie du, Herr Christ, so milde
/ Dich hast geblut’ zu Tod!’ were taken with the most affecting slowness,
yet without at all diminishing the enunciation of the words or the moving
shape of the phrases. A performance of real commitment and emotional
depth.
Melanie Eskenazi
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