Subject: London Passions, March-April 1998 St Matthew Passion, 29Mar98, Festival Hall Evangelist Neil Jenkins Christ Gerald Finley Lorna Anderson, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Richard Edgar-Wilson Conductor David Willcocks Bach Choir, English Chamber Orchestra St John Passion, 5Apr98, St John's, Smith Square Evangelist Mark Wilde Christ Damian Thantrey Gillian Keith, William Purefoy, Daniel Norman, James Rutherford, Ben Davies Conductor Leon Lovett English Baroque Choir, English Baroque Orchestra St John Passion, 10Apr98, St John's, Smith Square Evangelist Ian Bostridge Christ Robert Rice Catherine Bott, James Bowman, Paul Agnew, Thomas Guthrie Conductor Stephen Layton Polyphony, Canzona There are ten Bach Passions in London in the fortnight up to Easter this year, three Matthew and seven John. Matthew has been a fixture in the Anglican repertoire for a long time. It's one of a handful of great works I've really found my way into and still keep finding more in, given frequent opportunities to hear and perform it. But recently I've also become deeply attached to John. Its asymmetric simplicity follows the Gospel narrative wherever it leads, and I find deeply moving its openness to, and representation of, the painful rapture of reflecting on the suffering of Christ. In fact, I agree with Janos Gereben entirely that this is opera if anything is, and demands a theatrical performance. The only example I know of one is Jonathan Miller's Matthew Passion, which I liked a lot, and which concentrated on the emotions of the singers and chorus. The Passion narratives are inherently dramatic--essentially trial scenes, followed by an execution--, and their performance during the liturgy before Easter is always pure theatre, even when read in English by the usual celebrants and readers. (The Passion reading was one of the few things at mass that I enjoyed, in the days when I was small enough to be forced to go.) The Matthew Passion has been performed by the Bach Choir on the South Bank before Easter since the 1930s. David Willcocks conducted for the last time this year, after thirty eight years as director of the choir. The audience seemed to consist largely, from the number of run-in performing scores in use, of members of other choral societies, for many of whom it was clearly a religious as well as a musical event. But there are English people who can get fervent about Gilbert and Sullivan or Sherlock Holmes, and this performance was mainly a loving rehearsal of the familiar. (There was an extended break for picnics as at Glyndebourne.) The English translation, with the words of the King James Bible wherever possible, and shimmering sound of the choir and orchestra, made it feel like an extension of the morning eucharist, or maybe an alternative to the Messiah for highbrows. The choir was seated with the different voices mixed together, which added to the density of the sound, powerful in the "Barabbas" choruses and bulldozing in "Let him be crucified". The solosts were the B team, though Gerald Finley sounded beautiful, centred but fluid. Catherine Wyn Rogers often strikes me as highly competent and not very interesting, but she sang the contralto standards in high English style here. Neil Jenkins has a great sense of drama, and a nearly-beautiful voice that is just showing tiny cracks. (I kept thinking of him in the green-and-purple dress and high heeled mules he'd worn as Arnalta in Poppea less than a week before, but then you can't take me anywhere.) There was one nightmare moment when the orchestra nearly fell to bits and Lorna Anderson, who was very good indeed, couldn't find her entrance. She'd looked nervous enough before that. Everyone stayed calm and got back together in twelve bars, quite a lot of notes to be at sea for. The St John Passion by the English Baroque Choir and Orchestra at St John's on 5 April was perhaps the most thoroughly prepared of the three I heard,with a good set of young soloists. Mark Wilde was an ideal St John Evangelist, delivering the drama in full and having a great time with the bravura moments. The front rows at least of the audience were silently cheering him on as he built up the melisma on "geisselte". Daniel Norman, singing the tenor arias, was also very effective. William Purefoy has a very sweet, pleasant voice but isn't really expressive enough for Es ist vollbracht, one of only two alto arias and a key one in its negotiation between resignation and heroism. James Bowman was often highly expressive in the St John Passion conducted by Stephen Layton on 10 April, but his voice was almost non-existent and kept disappearing in the middle of words. This was the one low point of this performance. The high points were almost all the rest. Polyphony is a superb choir. They sounded spiky and scary as the crowd, and conveyed the deep spirituality of the choruses. The ECO delivered the difficult instrumental textures splendidly. But the reason I took in a second St John Passion was Ian Bostridge's Evangelist. He'd had very enthusiastic reviews for a performance earlier in the week, and every word was true. Looking cadaverous like a prisoner on Patmos, he sang with controlled intensity and complete understanding of the words, getting all the power of the narrative without any risk of going over the top. The effect of his repeated ornamented "weinete bitterlich" (Peter weeps after denying Christ three times) was electrifying. I have tosay that Paul Agnew, who has a small, sweetly beuatiful voice, was almost asgood, and I'd have liked to hear more of him in this heavily cut performance.