The Pain and the Passion

Early Music expert D JAMES ROSS offers an insider’s view of a rare Highland performance of J S Bach’s magnificent St Matthew Passion

ALTHOUGH ONE can never be entirely sure, it seems likely that the forthcoming performance of J S Bach’s St Matthew Passion by the Inverness Cathedral Chorus and the Highland Chamber Orchestra is the first time this epic work has been presented to Highland audiences.

Alastair Hardie’s excellent Culbin Singers performed the same composer’s St John Passion very successfully last year in Forres, but even Alastair regards the larger-scale Matthew Passion as a “passion” too far! So what are the challenges that the Cathedral forces are taking on?

Firstly the work is enormous, lasting about three hours in an average performance. Dealing with the Easter story of the suffering and crucifixion of Christ, the elegant Baroque German text unfolds events with a stoical inevitability which must have appealed enormously to Bach’s fellow Lutherans.

Johann Sebastian Bach

However against this dignified backdrop, we ride a veritable roller-coaster of emotions as we witness seething crowd scenes, acts of sadistic cruelty inflicted on Jesus, and moments of human tenderness. Within the standard passion structure of a narrative Evangelist’s part, brief personal appearances by the main protagonists, and an ongoing system of commentary from further soloists and the choir in the form of arias, choruses and chorales, Bach’s masterpiece also features an extremely varied Baroque orchestra.

The Highland Chamber Orchestra, currently Inverness Cathedral’s orchestra in residence and an ensemble who have made a considerable name for themselves throughout the Highlands in the four years since their foundation, are required to fill the role of a double orchestra, and are fielding a number of specialist wind players, including extra oboists to handle the various oboe d’amore and oboe da caccia parts.

Early clarinets were around at the time Bach wrote his St Matthew Passion – Vivaldi, Telemann and Handel all wrote music for clarinets – but clearly Bach had no players available as he never used them, and clarinettists like myself usually have to sit out performances of Bach’s music. However, as a part-time member of the Inverness Cathedral Consort, I have been drawn in to sing bass instead, and although I have been unable to attend all the rehearsals, I have enjoyed watching the preparations progress.

“This performance … will provide a unique opportunity for Highland audiences to hear a live performance of a work which is arguably Bach’s most important contribution to the choral repertoire.”

Rehearsals for the chorus started several weeks ago. Members of the various Cathedral choirs form the core of the group, but the prospect of singing this great music has also attracted singers of varying levels of expertise from throughout the Highlands. The Cathedral’s Master of Music, Edward Barbieri, who will direct the performance, has been devoting time to drawing the diverse voices of the chorus into a unified ensemble.

This is no easy process – no passion without pain! – but intensive painstaking work on basic elements such as phrasing, expression of text and vocal blend has begun to pay dividends. The chorus work in the St Matthew Passion is unusual in that, like the orchestral writing, much of it is in fact for double choir: two four-part choirs employed antiphonally to maximise the dramatic effect.
As many of the chorus members are relatively inexperienced singers, the priority has been to establish this eight-part texture, and recently some of the more dramatic choruses have begun to sound extremely effective. Bach’s vocal lines are not immediately accessible, and often feel rather instrumental in conception, although the precision and perfection of the writing is never less than impressive.

In any case as Beethoven was later to comment, the mortal medium cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the divine message! In his own lifetime Bach frequently expressed dissatisfaction about the inadequacy of his performing forces – clearly they found his music challenging too! Incidentally, all the paperwork associated with performances of this music directed by the composer suggest that he used tiny forces, one or two voices to each choral part and a very small orchestra.

With over fifty choral singers and around thirty in the orchestra as well as an extensive line-up of soloists, this performance by the Cathedral Chorus and Highland Chamber Orchestra will be on an altogether more lavish scale than that, and more significantly it will provide a unique opportunity for Highland audiences to hear a live performance of a work which is arguably Bach’s most important contribution to the choral repertoire.

© D James Ross, 2004

J S Bach’s St Matthew Passion will be performed in Inverness Cathedral on Sunday 20 June 2004.