St Matthew Passion
The Symphony Choir of Johannesburg brought the 'greatest story ever told' to life on Good Friday.
The St Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the great sacred oratorios. Written in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, it is a setting by Christian Friedrich Henrici of chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel according to St Matthew in Martin Luther's German translation. It was probably first performed on Good Friday in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.
The Symphony Choir of Johannesburg and the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra presented this work on Good Friday 2012 at the Linder Auditorium under the baton of Richard Cock. In his programme notes, Richard Cock says “Bach's St Matthew Passion is by general consent technically, emotionally and devotionally the greatest work of its kind ever written. Christ's words are distinguished from the others by being accompanied by a halo of strings and various characters have their place in the work – some of the music is thrillingly realistic (the rending of the veil, the earthquake and the shouts of the crowd) and some of the solos are absolutely heart-rending in their expressiveness.”
The Linder Auditorium was packed, with only one empty seat, co-incidentally in the row in which I was sitting. The people next to me insisted that they were expecting someone and that the organisers could not use that seat for one of the hopefuls waiting outside. Performances of the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg are always sold out.
No artistic attempt was made to mount this work in an historical context, so the work is performed with a huge choir, and six soloists who do not form part of the choir. One of the choristers sings the role of Peter. The two orchestras share an organ, with Sue Cock playing for both. Logistically it makes sense to use only one organ, but it does mean that Sue Cock worked exceptionally hard throughout as she provided the continuo for the entire performance. She's more than up to the task, delivering a fine example of the genre.
I found that overall the pace of the music was somewhat slower than I would have liked, but despite its length I didn't experience the “fidgits” (which I have to force myself to restrain) I always get in performances of Messiah. I was able to enter into the worship experience as we worked our way through the narrative with the story being both told and commented upon.
Speaking of the narrative, the tenor Evangelist was Bernard Loonen. Other soloists were Lynelle Kenned, Veramarie Meyer, Siyabonga Maqungo, Jaco Klopper and Hendre van Zyl as a warm resonant Jesus. The soloists were all wonderful, each delivering a fine and beautifully modulated recitative which moved seamlessly into their arias, but it was the performance of Jaco Klopper which blew me away. He has an exquisite bass voice, clear as a bell despite it being in the bottom range, which makes it possible to hear every word. It was a real pleasure listening to him. The only gripe I had was that the performance was being played live on radio as it happened. The usual recording mikes used by the Johannesburg Philharmonic were in place but they had added some for the vocal solos, notably two in the front. Because of lack of space on the stage the soloists were seated at the side and had to move across the stage into place each time, a process which I found mildly distracting. The choir's diction and textual nuance was less exciting than that of the soloists, but the sound was always pleasing.
At many points during the performance I got goosebumps as I shared the sentiments being sung. I love settings of the Passion which end with crucifixion and leave one to go home forlorn and without hope, in the mould of the first disciples. It makes the joy of Easter so much sharper, even for those of us who believe it year round.