On Palm Sunday in 1841, an ambitious young conductor and composer presented a “new” piece — or rather, revived an obscure piece that, though written over one hundred years earlier, had not been heard in over a generation. The young conductor was none other than Felix Mendelssohn; the piece was the then-obscure Passion According to St. Matthew by J. S. Bach. Thus began the so-called Bach Revival.
On March 30, 2003, a pair of ambitious young groups — Apollo’s Fire and Apollo’s Singers — presented the now-famous Passion According to St. Matthew by J. S. Bach. Though the Passion was not a new piece to most of the audience, the performance, conducted by Jeannette Sorrell, conductor and music director of Apollo’s Fire, was an invigorating yet meditative event.
The Passion is an intimidating work. Last Sunday’s performance by Apollo’s Fire lasted roughly three and a half hours and involved two orchestras, three choruses and eight soloists.
“I had always said that I would not conduct this piece until I was 40,” conductor Jeanette Sorrell said. However, some peer pressure led her to change her mind: “The St. Matthew Passion has created a momentum amongst the Apollo’s Fire musicians, who have swept me up in their enthusiasm and impatience to do the piece. And just as it was for Mendelssohn and his friends, the project has been a labor of love,” Sorrell said.
The audience must have been glad she changed her mind, for the performance by Apollo’s Fire brought to light all the reasons why the St. Matthew Passion is regarded as a Bach masterpiece. The choruses were rich and always perfectly in character. Perhaps the best moment for the choruses came at the end of Scene IV, in Part 2, where using nuances of tone color as their sole tool, they effected a particularly moving transition from angry mob (“For this [blasphemy] the man [Jesus] must die”) to penitent believers (“How dare they…falsely to indict Thee.”) Additionally, the soprani in ripieno part, originally written for a chorus of young boys, was performed by the soprano section of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus. The youthful voices provided a fairly authentic sound, similar to that which Bach originally intended.
The drama of the Passion story was well re-created by the performers’ ability to step into character.
“Bach took the dramatic nature of the Passion to much greater heights than any other German composer. It is unclear why some critics today object to a dramatic approach to a Bach Passion as ‘operatic’ or ‘non-liturgical,’” Sorrell said. She also proved a non-purist by performing the work in English, rather than in its original German. “The idea of presenting this work in a language not understood by the majority of the audience would have seemed very strange to Bach.”
Guest artists from around the United States performed the solo parts. Tenor Ian Honeyman, the Evangelist, gave a high-energy performance. His intensity was such that each of his sentences seemed punctuated by a string of exclamation points. This effect was generally appropriate but seemed rather heavy-handed at times.
Baritone Sumner Thompson was faced with the task of portraying no fewer than four characters, as well as performing many of the bass arias. He expressed emotion subtly through both his voice and body language. Thompson created a surprisingly sympathetic Judas, the villain of the Passion story. Thompson’s aria in the final scene was possibly the highlight of the performance; the accompaniment was grandly tragic as Thompson implored his heart to “Make a grave there for my Jesus.” Truly a sublime moment, it guided the concert to its successful conclusion.
Other soloists were baritone Jeffrey Strauss (Jesus), soprano Laura Heimes, countertenor Daniel Taylor, tenor Richard Edgar-Wilson, soprano Jayne Tankersley and bass Michael McMurray.
Apollo’s Fire is considered one of the premiere baroque orchestras and operates out of Cleveland. Apollo’s Singers is the sister vocal ensemble of Apollo’s Fire.