Snape Maltings has resounded to some wonderful St John Passions in its time. There is an iconic performance (preserved on Decca) that was recorded at the Maltings in 1971 under Benjamin Britten, with a cast that included Peter Pears, Heather Harper, John Shirley-Quirk and other notable singers of the day. That version was sung in English. For his performance on Sunday night, conductor Ralph Woodward opted for Bach’s final version of the work of 1749 (sung in German) and did a fine job with choir and soloists alike in ensuring clean, intelligible diction and nicely rounded sound.He also did a spot of quick audience coaching in the interval, and we all joined in no. 22, the Chorale Durch Dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn. The result was not unpleasing.
The first St John Passion I ever heard live was at the Royal Festival Hall in the 1960s. I remember it as a very long afternoon in the concert hall. So the first thing to say about this performance with the Britten Pears Chamber Choir is how incredibly quickly it all went by. Tempi were sprightly and well judged, there was plenty of attack and one number folded into the next with the bare minimum of pausing, retuning, reconcentration of forces. But there was another reason the performance moved on so well – the absolutely riveting performance of the evening came from an inspired Andrew Kennedy, who in the crucial role of the Evangelist never put a foot wrong. His unfailing beauty of tone, variation of light and shade, his ever changing dynamic, the drama that he suddenly injected into his voice in his dialogues with various other protagonists were all simply wonderful. Kennedy is in fine voice at the moment and this was a stand-out performance. His was also the most idiomatic and intelligently phrased German of the evening – a pleasure to listen to throughout his long role.
In nice contrast to Kennedy was the tenor of Julian Forbes, a much darker and less mellifluous sound but a cleanly sung and well-phrased account of the role. No 13, Ach, mein Sinn set the mark for what was to come: his voice has character and shows great promise. Doubling as bass solo and as Pontius Pilate, James Birchall made his mark too. I particularly liked the interplay between him and the orchestra in no. 19, Betrachte, meine Seel, in which the magical introduction gave way to a real dialogue between singer and players.
Veteran performer of the evening was counter-tenor James Bowman, singing the Alto part. If the joins in the various registers of his voice now show a bit, as in his opening aria, Von den Stricken meiner Sünden, the artistry that he can deploy is often spellbinding, and no. 30, Es ist vollbracht, was simply magical. This was sensitive word painting and absolute beauty of phrasing of the very highest order. I think on balance I prefer a female alto in the role, but Bowman made the best possible case for its male incarnation.
The soprano should have been Lucy Crowe, but she was indisposed: so at very short notice Eleanor Cramer, a choral scholar at Clare College, Cambridge stepped in for the two soprano arias. She has a light, soubrettish soprano and produced a pure tone, free of vibrato: her breath control was not ideal in no. 9, Ich folge Dir gleichfalls, but she grew in confidence as the evening progressed and gave a well-phrased and nicely modulated account of her final aria, Zerfliesse, mein Herze. That leaves Edward Grint singing the part of Christ. Like Kennedy a product of King’s Cambridge, he showed unfailing musicality throughout. The voice is a light baritone, nicely focused and well centred on the note, if occasionally lacking in resonance. But Grint produced nobility of sound, and his exchanges with Kennedy were beautifully judged and always interesting.
St John Passion is a great sing for any vocal ensemble and the forty singers in the Britten Pears Chamber Choir stepped up to the plate for their resident conductor. This was a small-scale, ‘less is more’ performance, characterised by clean lines, precise articulation and a rhythmic spring that is hard to achieve or to sustain with a massive choir. No. 3, O grosse Lieb, o Lieb ohn alle Masse was light and graceful and set the tone for much that was to follow. No. 11, the chorale Wer hat Dich so geschlagen saw the choir in top form, with resonance and Heft in the singing and a varied dynamic range. There is perhaps a price to pay for a ‘beautiful’ reading of the work like this, namely an absence of real drama and passion at climactic moments: No. 23d Weg mit dem, kreuzige ihn! was too smooth for my liking and some of the later chorales were under-characterised. The work finishes after all with a tremendous outpouring of faith, Herr Jesu Christ, erhöre mich/Ich will Dich preisen ewiglich! – if you concentrate on beauty of tone and mark a prolonged diminuendo on the final word, you are missing out on the cut and thrust of Bach at his most vibrant! But judged on its own terms, this was a well rehearsed and finely sung St John Passion, and had plenty of exhilaration at key moments along the way.
A word for the Suffolk Baroque Players: after a slightly tentative start, with minor problems of tuning and intonation, they blossomed into an utterly reliable chamber ensemble and accompanied splendidly. The woodwind and the sensitive continuo organ playing deserve special mention.
By Mike Reynolds
Photo: Andrew Kennedy (credit: Ben Ealovega)
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