Sunday 2 June 2024
The Stoller Hall, Manchester
*****
A joyous and moving performance of Bach’s masterpiece
Three hundred years ago, JS Bach took up a post in Leipzig where his St John Passion was first performed on 7 April 1724. On the three hundredth anniversary of the first performance, the BBC Philharmonic and Manchester Chamber Choir performed it at the Bridgewater Hall. On Sunday afternoon, the centuries rolled back again in Manchester with a performance of Bach’s masterpiece of Western Art Music, the B Minor Mass. The ‘Sanctus’ from the Mass was also performed in Leipzig in 1724, although the full piece wasn’t actually performed until 1859, also in Leipzig, over a century after Bach’ death in 1750. Bach, quoted in Harry Haskell’s illuminating programme note for this concert, said that ‘the aim and final reason’ of all music should be,
‘… none else but the glory of God and the recreation of the mind. Where this is not observed, there will be no real music but only a devilish hubbub.’
So what is the status of the B Minor Mass? Is it the supreme expression of Christian belief, or is it an intellectual insight into one the greatest musical minds? It’s probably both. It appears that Bach saw it in both ways. As Haskell says in his programme note, before Bach was appointed at St Thomas’s School he was examined in detail on his knowledge of theology – part of his duties there were to provide religious instruction. But he also took a pragmatic approach to sacred works – he used the Missa Brevis which later formed part of the much longer B Minor Mass as a calling card to obtain a new post under Frederick Augustus in Dresden. Further, it seems unlikely that the B Minor Mass was ever meant for liturgical use, simply because it’s far too long to be used in a worship situation. It has been suggested that it was written to be performed at the opening of a new Catholic cathedral in Dresden; the building wasn’t completed at Bach’s death and the Mass wasn’t used. It seems more likely that Bach wrote the piece as a summary of his life’s work, drawing on musical styles from several different eras of his work. But this doesn’t preclude the possibility of Bach’s religious expression being genuine. And the genuineness of his devotion, seeing God through human eyes, adds an element of human emotion that prevents the music being a mere intellectual exercise (albeit of the very highest order) – Bach’s sorrow at the Crucifixion of Jesus and his joy at the Resurrection are viscerally real.
The most remarkable aspect of Sunday’s concert was how pure it felt, allowing direct access to the emotions and intellectual power of the music itself, to the mind and soul of Bach himself. It was often impossible to untangle whether the effect of this stunning performance was because of the virtuosity of the musicians or the virtuosity of the writing; it was probably both. It was if the veneer of romanticism had been stripped away to reveal the vibrant colours of an Old Master. This was partly because the choir and orchestra maintain the highest standards of Historically Informed Performance, using instruments (such as natural trumpets) and performance styles based on what history tells us about practices in Bach’s time; the name of the orchestra even references the Baroque performing pitch of A = 415 Hz (as opposed to the modern A = 440 Hz). It was also because of the youthful freshness and enthusiasm of the performers, mostly students from Yale University and the Juilliard School of Music. In a brief conversation after the concert, conductor David Hill revealed that none of them had played or sung the piece before the current tour, so at the most they had only known it for a couple of months.
The opening Missa began with the ‘Kyrie’, ten minutes of some of the most sublime music ever written. It was slow and stately, with authentic Baroque woodwind, precise orchestral playing, agilely sung and beautifully shaped vocal lines with limpid textures, revealing the ethereal beauty of the music. The duet in the ‘Christe Eleison’ featured the perfectly matched voices of soprano Juliet Ariadne Papadopoulos and mezzo Sandy Sharis, who like the male soloists also sang with the choir. Papadopoulos in particular was a compelling stage presence throughout, smiling beatifically at the audience and fellow performers. In the ‘Gloria’, the balance of singers and instrumentalists was ideal. There were moments of jaw dropping beauty in ‘Et in Terra Pax’, as the choir negotiated the difficult vocal lines of the fugal parts with ease. In the ‘Gratias’ the voices appeared organically, as if out of nowhere. In the ‘Domine Deo’ duet between Papadopoulos and tenor Michaël Hudetz, again the soloists managed their complex parts with ease, and the detail of the accompanying orchestral textures – aided by the Stoller Hall’s clear acoustic – was evident in the clarity of the plucked basses. The ‘Qui Tollis’ was a lovely moment of contemplative stillness, textures drifting magically, to use TS Eliot’s phrase, ‘at the still point of the turning world’ (from Burnt Norton, Four Quartets 1936). Carys Sutherland provided superb virtuosity in the horn solo in ‘Quoniam tu solus sanctus’, accompanying warm-voiced bass Fredy Bonilla. Ending the ‘Missa’, and the first half of the concert, ‘Cum sancto spiritu’ was joyfully fast and energetic, the chorus never coming off the rails even in the fugue. David Hill’s direction of the orchestra was immaculate.
Part Two, the Credo, the basic statement of Christian belief, began with dancing rhythms and complex polyphony, with clear textures from the string and bass parts in ‘Credo in Unum Deum’. The soprano and alto duet in ‘Et in unum deum’ had a perfectly balanced handover of the vocal line from one singer to the other and back again. There was rich word painting from the choir in ‘Et incarnatus est’, with its stately, majestic, falling motif and crunchy harmonies. The ‘Crucifixus’, with warm and expressive bass parts, was devastating. The sheer joy of ‘Et resurrexit’, with its immensely long lines was palpable. There was a massive, highly dramatic rallentando before the triumphant explosion of confidence about the prospect of eternal life in ‘Et expecto resurrectionem’, with glittering trumpets. The feeling of joyous celebration continued in Part Three, the Sanctus with its Baroque dance rhythms. Part Four, the Osanna, Benedictus and Agnus Dei began with splendid contrapuntal singing from the choir in the joyful ‘Osanna’. Conductor David Hill had a brief rest while tenor Michaël Hudetz sang the contemplative ‘Benedictus’, earnestly devotional, with lovingly crafted vocal lines. But perhaps the highlight of the second half of the concert was the alto aria ‘Agnus Dei’ sung by Sandy Sharis, her voice floating over the orchestra with supreme control, sometimes smooth, sometimes fragile, sometimes blooming as the voice opened out. A heart stopping moment. After that, the final chorus, ‘Dona nobis pacem’, started quietly as if beamed in from a distant planet, with a gradual crescendo and stratospheric trumpets, reaching a golden splendour on the final ‘pacem’, a prayer for peace.
Performers
Yale Schola Cantorum
Juilliard415
David Hill, conductor
Juliet Ariadne Papadopoulos, soprano
Sandy Sharis, alto
Michaël Hudetz, tenor
Fredy Bonilla, bass
Presented by Yale Institute of Sacred Music