According to Christoph Wolff, eminent Bach scholar who gave the pre-concert lecture before tonight’s St. Matthew Passion performance, Bach composed this musical sermon of the Passion Gospel with the intent of “touching our hearts in ways words without music cannot”— he wanted to rouse our emotions.
Even though I have personally performed this work on at least five occasions (twice as a singer and the rest as organist) I still learned something from the lecture. Wolff said that Bach was hired at St. Thomas Leipzig in the month of May, so he had plenty of time before the next Easter cycle to think about what he wanted to express, given that his predecessor, Franz Tunder, set the precedent for composing a Passion for Good Friday.
The people of Leipzig eagerly awaited Bach’s creation which was billed as sacred opera—even though it was specifically written in Bach’s contract that he was not to compose an opera! So it was all right then, for the singer with the role of Jesus to sing an aria afterwards, because he was only a representative of Jesus.
It only took Bach seven weeks to compose the music, write out the parts, and rehearse the choir before the first performance. He did not design it to be sung one singer per part, as was done tonight by the Dunedin Consort, with Kristian Bezuidenhout conducting from the harpsichord.
That was because Bach had to plan for larger forces since the boy sopranos were unreliable—there was always the possibility that one of them would get sick, or have his voice “break” (change) at any moment.
Tonight there were only eight singers, divided into two choirs as indicated in the score, all of whom sang solos and the choruses, plus four added sopranos from the Boston University Marsh Chapel Choir who sang the overlaying chorale parts in the opening chorus and the final chorale of the first half.
This was the first time I saw Kristian Bezuidenhout in the role of conductor, whom my late husband Carl and I met in France, many years ago. In that area, few people spoke English, and as Kristian apologized, he knew no French. So he eagerly engaged us in conversation on our week-long visit there. A few years later, we met up with him again here in Boston at BEMF, and we brought him chocolate macadamia nuts, meeting him backstage.
As soon as the first notes of the opening chorus were heard, I felt a “chill” start up at the bottom of my spine and travel up my back, growing up my neck and out to my shoulders. It was the “musical chill” that happens when music elicits an emotional response—and it happened over and over again throughout the evening.
I couldn’t help but be drawn back to our two performances of the Matthew Passion in the year 2000, with Carl conducting and playing from the harpsichord. That became “our Passion,” as we had four soloists cancel, one of whom only ten days before the performance; I was going through several months of terrible respiratory and skin allergies, and we were going through an extremely painful time as a family. Plus, there were several Jesus arias that were not rehearsed because of rehearsal time restraints, and on the night of the concert, one of the second violinists thought it was a rehearsal and was dressed in jeans (she came back properly dressed in the second half); and the concertmaster arrived after the start of the concert, thinking it started at 7:30 pm instead of 7:00 pm.
On performance night, Carl was “on the verge of blowing a gasket” —but as he raised the baton to start the opening chorus, a tremendous calm came over him, and the music of Bach became a comforting blanket. The entire ensemble of choirs, orchestra, and soloists absolutely “rose to the occasion,” and presented two superb performances, something the audience as well as the performers, will never forget.
[I suggest that you further read Carl’s article on his personal journey with the Matthew Passion:)
St. Matthew Passion: a personal journey
St. Matthew Passion: Part Two
As Wolff said, the music that Bach composed, expresses every single emotion: love, deception, betrayal, anger, fear, and redemption. I certainly felt all of that tonight, and more. I found the audience to be remarkably quiet and absolutely rapt in the presence of this outstanding performance.
What was so amazing, was that Bezuidenhout acknowledged each of the singers and instrumental soloists; and the biggest and heartiest cheers of the night were given to Jesus, the Evangelist, the alto (an unforgettable “Erbarme dich”), the cellist, the gambist, the flute soloists, and the oboe soloists—all well-deserved.
As the opening concert of the Festival, all I can say is WOW! The exceptionally high level of the singing and instrumental playing was absolutely out of this world. Imagine my surprise when I opened the program book to see a greeting from Senator Elizabeth Warren!
I think that tonight was one of the finest concerts to which I have ever been!