Passiontide is the time of year when we’re spoilt for choice in performances of Bach’s great Passions – both St Matthew and St John. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment can traditionally be found at Smith Square Hall with the Polyphony choir, but this year in addition to offering the St John Passion there, they brought the Matthew to the Southbank Centre, where they are in residence.
Notwithstanding the lack of an ecclesiastical acoustic, the orchestra, under the direction of Jonathan Cohen, and with a fine team of soloists, delivered a performance that was both powerfully dramatic and spiritually intense. Cohen, who began his career as a cellist, brings an understanding of the work from the inside. As is standard today, his tempi are fleet, paying allegiance to Bach’s ubiquitous dance rhythms, while the drama is projected with minimal pauses, yet always alert to the emotional depths of the Passion story.
He was aided by the superb Evangelist of Nick Pritchard, who used the closed score in his hands as a mere prop, enabling him to engage fully in the drama, deploying exemplary diction and tonal variety in the process. Occasionally turning to react to participants such as the High Priest or the chorus representing the populace, he injected a further note of immediacy. I didn’t see Florian Störtz’s Christ engage in such a way: perhaps he preferred to maintain a Lordly presence. He certainly combined nobility with humanity, reacting now with indignation, now resignation, to the outrages visited on him.
Anna Dennis, immersed in the complexities of a Boulez score just a few days ago, demonstrated a commendable grasp also of the Baroque style. Iestyn Davies reliably registered a note of pathos in his arias, not least in Erbarme dich, one of the highlights of the work. Hugo Hymas made a strong impression with his stylish tenor solos, while Thomas Bauer, less of a Baroque specialist, brought an attractive tone quality to the bass solos.
There were many fine instrumental solos from members of the experienced OAE: Kati Debretzeni’s fiery virtuosity was appropriate in the concerto-like Gebt mir meinem Jesum wieder and Huw Daniel’s eloquent violin solo provided the perfect complement for Davies’ Erbarme dich, though Jonathan Manson’s incomparable gamba playing in Komm, süsses Kreuz would have been heard to greater advantage in this large space had he moved to the front for his solo.
The Choir of the OAE delivered both the crowd choruses and the reflective chorales expressively under Cohen’s direction, with individual members taking minor solo roles admirably.
