The Colossus of Rhodes, the Pharos of Alexandria, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon – these Wonders of the World no longer exist – but, like the Pyramids or the Great Wall of China, the St Matthew Passion still stands, and is one of the Wonders of the Musical World. Daunting, at times, in its vast scope, to a lover of the more concise beauties of the St John, like your reviewer, it truly merits the respect and attention the listener needs.
AThe aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul@.
Thus pronounced Bach and I think it holds all the clues that we need as to why he never wrote an opera. It wouldn=t be his thing. People make a case by saying his Passions have operatic traits, with their recitatives, elaborate solos and duets, but he doubtless wouldn=t have seen things that way. And although, particularly in Leipzig, he was expected to produce a good deal of secular music, he was first and foremost a leading church musician.
Our A-team were out in force to do justice to the music. One thing which would have pleased Bach in general, is the return of the choir to the sort of forces he would have had to handle. The day of enormous choirs in the Crystal Palace or somewhere like that, is happily, or nearly, over. It would be interesting to know more about what the singers who worked for Bach sounded like. After all, the second Frau Bach was a singer! By the days of Handel, up to his neck in opera for years, if anyone was, there are plenty of letters, reports of conversations and his own comments, to bring them to life. The triumphs and the tears, the re-writes and the rows, are all there for us, and we can almost hear their voices in our inner ear. But, as the premieres of works like the St Matthew Passion were in church, and there was presumably no lady of a certain age scribbling for the Parish Magazine, we have to guess.
In a church which was built only 20 years after the St Matthew Passion was composed and with a Baroque orchestra just as Bach would have had, with woodwind which really was wood wind, it was not hard to feel transported to the sort of experience that the good people of the congregation of the Thomaskirche must have had.
How hard our Junior Choir had worked to carry on the tradition when the trebles of the Thomasschule sang together with the adult choirs. This is probably the most difficult thing they have attempted, and was a credit to David Moore.
The evening drew in, to draw us into the darkness of Gethsemane and the later parts of the story. The Bible story and the words of the characters were the words of Luther, which would have been known and loved by everyone present at the time.
It was particularly striking that the entire singing force for two choirs was eight singers, besides which we had Paul Robinson as a gracious Evangelist (as he has been in the St John) and Martin Oxenham as a grave and dignified Christus. Nicholas Mogg, playing everyone else, made each one different – the scheming Judas, haughty High Priest, sceptical Pilate and blustering St Peter, as well as singing the appropriate arias. And what a volume of sound the group produced – their call for Barabbas was chilling.
Although the Passion was presented as a liturgical experience, the fact remains that none of this would have worked without a conductor. James Sherlock obviously loved what he was doing, and his colleagues respond to this. We can look forward to AMessiah@ in November, and to seeing, we hope, as good and appreciative an audience as we had for the St Matthew Passion.
The St Matthew Passion
Suzanne Pinkerton