Tag Archives: St Matthew Passion

Dunedin: St Matthew Passion

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RSNO Centre, Glasgow

Through a quirk of bad 18th century business acumen and the consequent cessation of dedicated provision, the people of Leipzig, in Bach’s day, were effectively starved of opera. Or were they? Saturday’s slick, riveting, often animated performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion by the Dunedin Consort presented a strong case for the argument that what was missing from the opera house in the mercantile Thuringian city’s musical life was more than made up for by an inherently theatrical church music tradition.

Of course, it could never have been so obviously demonstrative. They were Lutherans after all. The theatricality was channelled through the music: in the Matthew Passion’s case a vivid dramatisation of the Easter story “pictorialised” by the visual interplay of double chorus, double orchestra and dramatis personae from within, and a sequence of fast-flowing narrative, choral commentary, rapt show-stopping arias and those reassuringly familiar (to German churchgoers) Chorales, knitted together as dynamic story-telling.

It’s been a mark of John Butt’s pugnacious directorship of the internationally acclaimed Dunedin Consort that such historically-informed performances as this – fully-mastered period instrument playing, a down-scaled concentration on the vocal contingent (one-to-a-part), smart but pliable tempi – say so much that is powerful, refreshing and revelatory about works many of us grew up with in less-informed times.  

If a hint of caution tempered the opening chorus, the fact it quickly dissipated suggested a necessary acclimatisation to the needle-sharp acoustics of the RSNO’s New Auditorium. Thereafter a thoroughly streamlined affair ensued, not just by the aforementioned forces, but including too, in key choruses, a clarion-like treble phalanx of the RSNO Youth Choir. This particular performance – the other two over the weekend were in Edinburgh and Perth – formed part of the Dunedin’s programming partnership with the RSNO.

At floor level, the stereophonic symmetry of the adult choruses and orchestras was an invigorating sight as well as sound, its rigid geometry offset by the itinerant to-ing and fro-ing of the eight singers as they exercised their dual roles as soloists and ripieno. It was that sense of role-playing, where spotlit action gave rise to third-party reaction, that fuelled our constant fascination as observers. 

From tenor Hugo Hymas’ heroic omnipresence as the narrating Evangelist (not to mention the stamina required for his additional arias) and Ashley Riches’ magisterial Christus, to the multifarious contributions of countertenor James Hall (wretchedly wholesome in his opening aria), the lyrical fluidity of Frederick Long’s bass-baritone, and Joanne Lunn’s rapturous soprano among others, the switches from homogenous chorus members to personalised characters were seamlessly achieved. 

Similarly, obbligato instrumentalists rising from their seats to partner solo arias did so with a stage presence that matched their virtuosity. Foremost were leader Huw Daniel’s heart-stopping solo violin (from memory) in Erbarme dich, the snaking oboe da caccias of Alexandra Bellamy and Oonagh Lee, and Jonathan Manson’s nimble expressiveness on viola da gamba.

With such instinctive expertise to hand, Butt’s role – besides his active contribution to the organ continuo – may have seemed essentially gestural at times, but that would be to downplay the vital response and emotional intensity he elicited from his top-notch team. It may not be opera, but close your eyes and this St Matthew Passion was a theatre of the imagination.

Ken Walton

Dunedin: Matthew Passion

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New Auditorium, RSNO Centre

I’ve been spoilt when it comes to Good Friday performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion by the Dunedin Consort. It may have been nine years ago, but the memorable setting was on tour in Weimar’s historic Herderkirche, against a backdrop of Lucas Cranach’s vivid altarpiece and the very font used to baptise the composer’s son, CPE Bach, with a German congregation joining in the chorales that, in this sublime retelling of the Easter story according to Matthew, represent “the voice of the people”. Hard to forget.

The setting for this year’s Good Friday performance was very different, the secular modernity and bright functionalism of the RSNO’s home auditorium insisting largely on one key focus for the delivery of the spiritual message, the music itself. If part of me ached for the holistic “living history” experience of 2014, director John Butt and his nuclear cast of singers and period instrument players provided little short of a wholesome presentation to a near-capacity Glasgow audience.

Followers of Dunedin will be familiar with its ways: one singer to a part (double SATB chorus in this case) and proportionately minimalist twin band. The inevitable intimacy of such an approach – the soloists drawn from the vocal ensemble – brings with it a thrilling intensity and engagement that made this 3-hour-plus event fly past in a breeze. 

If anything, a bit of acclimatisation in the opening chorus, the first of two featuring members of the RSNO Youth Chorus as the soaring line of Ripieno Sopranos, left some aspects of balance – the otherwise efficient youth choir slightly under projected – in flux, but once tenor Andrew Tortise’s captivating Evangelist took firm hold of the narrative, sure-footed confidence wiped away any initial uncertainty. Indeed, Tortise’s performance – judiciously emotive in the best story-telling tradition – was the purposeful linchpin around which a versatile cast played out its drama.

That team spirit established a lightning fluency in delivery, the host of protagonists (from Jesus to Judas to Pontius Pilate) each enacted with searing individualised charisma, yet as a chorus, the vocal team retreated into homogenised near-perfection. Any sense of imperfection – single voices that momentarily edged above the parapet – was strangely, often beautifully, impactful. Those brief rabble-rousing chorus interjections around the trial scene sent shivers up the spine.

Individually, Edward Grint captured the bass role of Jesus with noble poignancy. Fellow bass Christopher Webb breathed fire into his assortment of character cameos, alongside multi-hued performances by sopranos Nardus Williams and Miriam Allan, tenor Christopher Bowen and countertenor Rory McLeery. But the ultimate showstopper was surely alto Jess Dandy’s soul-stirring aria Erbarme dich, sung with melting warmth and impassioned amplitude in liquid partnership with lead violinist Huw Daniel’s exquisite obligato solo.

That’s not to take anything away from other virtuoso instrumental contributions, such as Jonathan Manson’s free-flowing viola da gamba counterpoint to the bass aria Mache dich, or the sultry duetting oboe d’amores that embellish the soprano aria, Ich will dir mein Herze schenken. 

In all of this John Butt’s leadership counted for everything, impeccable timing that heightened the dramatic juxtapositions, expressed moments of deep sensitivity and chilling theatre in equal measure, and which triumphed in expressing the wonderment and relevance of Bach’s creative symbolism.

Ken Walton

Dunedin Consort: St Matthew Passion

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Perth Concert Hall

It is not only in its three-hour duration that Bach’s St Matthew Passion is an epic undertaking, and the hiatus of last year’s cancellation – the first victim of the coronavirus lockdown at Perth Concert Hall – has had the useful effect of reminding us just how important is the Dunedin Consort’s annual performance. As the choir’s chief executive Jo Buckley points out in her introductory remarks to this “as live” stream to start Perth programmer James Waters’ Easter Festival, it is a work that contains every possible human emotion and there is an added poignancy this Easter to its message of hope and salvation.

More than that though, this concert hall presentation, with all the required social distancing, makes the remarkable ingredients of Bach’s masterwork apparent in ways that could not have been predicted. There is a clarity about the ingenious storytelling, and use of the narrative voices, both musical and in the cast of characters, that is very special indeed.

Most obviously that is in the way the concert looks, with its two choruses, two orchestras and soloists, as well as how it sounds, the Perth hall’s wonderful acoustic beautifully recorded, a full, rich instrumental sound (no period instrument weediness here), and the singers placed in widescreen stereo across the stage. With effective and undistracting lighting, the video work is understated, usually (but not obsessively) matching the voices and instruments to be heard, with the occasional cross-fade as arias are accompanied by soloists or conductor John Butt directs a particular transition.

He has an A-team to conduct: Andrew Tortise is a measured and dramatic Evangelist with immaculate diction, and Matthew Brook a weighty and compelling Christus. However, it is the early outings of the women soloists that really make you sit up, alto Jess Dandy accompanied by the pair of flutes, soprano Jessica Leary stepping out of the second chorus and Anna Dennis just as expressive in partnership with the oboes. The other three solo voices, bass Benedict Nelson, tenor David Lee, and alto Judy Brown are no less impressive when their opportunities come around.

It is the clever matching of the arias, providing the commentary of the faithful on the Passion story with the singers who have been characters in that narrative, that is so spectacularly clear here. This is Butt’s Bach scholarship made flesh in a way that anyone coming to the work for the first time will instantly appreciate.

The conductor takes his time over his tale, with none of the regulation briskness that can blight historically-informed performance, secure in the knowledge that Bach’s version of Matthew’s telling of the Easter story is unique on its own terms. Similarly, there is nothing clinical in the playing of featured instrumentalists like flautist Katy Bircher and first violin Huw Daniel or in any of the singing, with the occasional natural imprecision enhancing the narrative flow.

If the restrictions of social distancing have no negative effect on any of the individual elements, it is also impossible to detect any diminishing in the ensemble instrumental sound, or the varied colours of the continuo – to which Butt adds chamber organ – or those moments when the two choirs combine for the glorious punctuation of Bach’s chorales.

That hymn-tune may be the ear-worm of the work but this Passion could hardly be less austere and presbyterian. It is the operatic quality of this oratorio for which this concert performance decisively argues the case.

Keith Bruce

Image: credit Tommy Slack/0405 Photography

Easter Passion in Perth

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The intrepid Dunedin Consort, whose early lockdown adventures provided the only authentic example of the currently much-invoked “Dunkirk Spirit”, will not be permitting the continuing health emergency to cancel this Easter’s performance of Bach’s epic St Matthew Passion.

With Andrew Tortise as the Evangelist and Matthew Brook as Christus, the ensemble will be presenting a streamed performance of the work on the evening of Saturday March 27 to launch Perth Concert Hall’s Easter festival of classical music.

Broadcast via Vimeo, the concert will be directed by John Butt from the organ, and available to view for a month, with tickets priced at £11.50 per receiving device, including booking fee.

The Dunedin Passion precedes four recitals from Perth featuring musicians from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the award winning Maxwell String Quartet. Running at 1pm from Tuesday April 6 to Friday April 9, in partnership with BBC Radio 3, they will also be available to view in the same way and for the same charge.

The series begins with pianist Steven Osborne playing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with soloists from the SCO and continues with clarinettist Maximiliano Martin and pianist Scott Mitchell, the Maxwell Quartet playing Haydn and Beethoven, and pianist Susan Tomes and members of the RSNO with quintets by Mozart and Beethoven.

Full details of the concerts from the Perth Concert Hall website: horsecross.co.uk

Keith Bruce