Tag Archives: Tim Mead

SCO / Emelyanychev: Matthew Passion

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Usher Hall, Edinburgh

BARITONE Roderick Williams, making a swift return to Scotland after featuring at the Lammermuir Festival, was the best-known name on stage for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s St Matthew Passion, but there were star voices everywhere on the platform, and magnificent instrumental performances to match them.

Williams, who sang Pilate, had his moments, notably the late Aria Mache dich, mein Herze, rein, giving voice to Joseph of Arimathea, but no more than others in this luxury line-up. Tenor Robert Murray combined with cellist Philip Higham, an oboe, two recorders and the chorus in a Part 1 highlight, while counter-tenor Tim Mead and soprano Hilary Cronin both had memorable solos – including the latter’s significant apocryphal intervention as Pilate’s wife – as well as duetting in counter-point to the chorus on So ist mein Jesus nun gefangen.

Gregory Batsleer’s SCO Chorus, split into two choirs, mirroring the division of the players below them, was not only as precise in its diction as the principals, but demonstrated a vast tonal range, whether standing and seated, to match the text. From its ranks Emily Kemp and Olivia Mackenzie Smith sang First and Second Maid, and bass Alex White was a step-out sensation as Judas, Peter and the High Priest. The addition of 14 youngsters from the choir of St Mary’s for some first half choruses was precision icing on the choral cake.

The role of Jesus was in the reliably capable hands of Matthew Brook, and his characterful singing of the words of the Last Supper and the plea to be spared the cup of suffering that swiftly follows was full of feeling. Likewise tenor Nick Pritchard’s Evangelist, especially impressive at the top of his range, was immaculately measured and increasingly animated as the familiar story unfolded.

It is a cliché to say that an inspired conductor can make early music sound as if the ink is still wet on the page, but Maxim Emelyanychev’s account of a work now approaching 300 years old really did seem box-fresh in the way its structure sparkled. His adventurous story-telling was edge-of-the-seat stuff.

In fact it is 290 years ago this year that the exquisite copy of the score that is the basis of reliable performances of Bach’s intentions was made. Those wishes have rarely been communicated to the audience as clearly as this conductor did in this performance. With the number of instruments carefully calibrated to maintain an ideal balance, from the Grand Circle of the Usher Hall it was like watching a perfectly-engineered machine in lubricated motion as the two orchestras, two choirs and mobile soloists found the perfect place and poise to make their point.

Both orchestra leader Stephanie Gonley and fellow violinist Marcus Barcham-Stevens had fine solos, the latter also directing his half of the musicians while Emelyanychev was busy at the harpsichord. The instrumental music was full of details like that, in the variations in the range of the wind accompaniment, continuo playing that combined cellos and basses – so warm-toned on gut strings – and the featuring of Alison McGillivray’s viola da gamba.

For all its majesty, Bach’s Matthew Passion can sometime make one pine for the composer’s briefer treatment of the Gospel of John. This one, repeated the following evening at Glasgow City Halls, flew by.

Keith Bruce

RSNO / Curnyn

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Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Even without the vicissitudes of the pandemic, the RSNO’s annual Messiah has been very much a moveable feast in recent seasons, and this one came to rest in an unaccustomed pre-Christmas slot that is currently more often associated with chamber choir concerts of the work by The Sixteen and Dunedin Consort (who perform it in Perth, Edinburgh and London next week).

At the same time, the gap between the performance styles of a big orchestra-and-chorus Messiah and the historical recreation of its Dublin premiere has also narrowed. With early music man Christian Curnyn on the podium, a compact version of the RSNO – still mostly of regulars – was joined by Mark Hindley at the harpsichord and Chris Nickol on chamber organ for a brisk version of the oratorio using what is probably the briefest permissible version of the score.

Led by Sharon Roffman, the strings and few reeds played their period part in crisp style thoughout, joined at the zenith of Parts 2 and 3 by the trumpets of Chris Hart and Marcus Pope and timpanist Paul Philbert.

The unique selling point of an RSNO Messiah is, of course, its Chorus and this live appearance by the amateur singers of the choir followed many a long month of inactivity thanks to coronavirus. So it was perhaps to be expected that there was something a little tentative about their first chorus And the glory of the Lord and some slightly ragged entries early on. It was not long, however, before they settled into their stride, and by the sequence of choruses in Part 2, culminating in a sparkling All we like sheep, all was well. More than that, here was often some exemplary ensemble singing, with a warmth of tone and balance across the sections – and a sense of unforced effortlessness at any pace or pitch.

All of which provided the ideal context for a very fine quartet of soloists indeed. Soprano Jeni Bern, countertenor Tim Mead, tenor Benjamin Hulett and bass-baritone Matthew Brook were superbly well-matched. All four have fascinatingly varied CVs and shared an expressiveness in their arias that served the narrative drive of the work, and Curnyn’s approach to the music. Mead and Hulett are both pure-toned with power across their ranges – especially impressive in the music for the alto – while Brook and Bern brought a more dramatic edge to their contributions. Brook’s Why do the nations? sounded especially pertinent, while Bern’s I know that my Redeemer liveth was fresh and tastefully ornamented.

Keith Bruce

Pictured: Tim Mead by Andy Staples