Louise Alder soprano, Iestyn Davies counter-tenor, Stuart Jackson Evangelist, Hugo Hymas tenor, Roderick Williams baritone, Matthew Rose Christ: Choristers of St Paul’s Cathedral Choir/Arcangelo Chorus & Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen harpsichord/director
It is years and years since I heard the St Matthew Passion live. In fact I am embarrassed to say that I suspect the last live performance I heard of it was at Aldeburgh in 1975, with Peter Pears as the Evangelist….that takes me back….. I remember it was, I think, the Easter Saturday weekend, or maybe even Good Friday and I wandered through the reeds in the interval. Also, I remember some Bach Choir performances in the early 70’s – I had a girlfriend who had family members in it and we went along. All these performances were of course in a mid-20th century large-scale ‘traditional’ performance style, before the widespread adoption of period instruments and Baroque performing traditions to inform how this music is presented.
This performance was generally fast in the usual early music mode, but for the most part this simply made for crisp rhythms and listeners’ engagement, I felt, and did not affect the marvellous stillness of ‘Erbarme Dich’, for instance. A couple of times arias from the tenor and soprano did sound too fast, to my ears, however.
Stuart Jackson was very good as the Evangelist, though it sounded like an interpretation that will grow with time, with more nuance and pointing of words and phrases. I had two issues with the singers: I felt Matthew Rose as Christ was too declamatory and unvaried; he didn’t bring any shading or quietness – just loud! He sounded as though he was in Wotan mode (he’s the Wotan in the new ENO Valkyrie in November), and, although he has a great voice, seemed miscast in this role. The other issue for me – no criticism of Iestyn Davies – is that I just get uncomfortable about the use of a counter-tenor in a role that is often given to a mezzo-soprano. When I remember the wonderful mezzos and contraltos who have sung this music, pre-eminently Janet Baker and Kathleen Ferrier, I find it difficult to adjust to the ‘hooty’ sounds of a counter-tenor, however beautifully they’ve sung the music (and Davies was great!). I don’t understand the thinking that lies behind this decision – there was after all a female soprano in the cast. Louise Alder and Roderick Williams also made notable contributions.
The orchestra was great (some wonderfully vibrant playing from the two first violins and the flautists) and also the Arcangelo chorus (great to hear a chorus live after 18 months). Again, I wondered about the inclusion of the St Paul’s Cathedral boys in the first half (is the thinking that Bach wanted his pupils to take part but didn’t trust them to sit through 3-4 hours of the work, so let them leave half way through?)
As I am a practising Christian, I do find it a bit difficult to understand what other people are getting out of the St Matthew Passion experience – the audience around me had some people who clearly had sung the work in a chorus and were moving along with the music; there were others impassively sipping their plastic-jar pints of beer. Curious…….
But, anyway, overall, a very good performance
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