The Muffat Collective & Choir of Christ Church St Laurence | St John Passion
Wednesday 6th April 2022 – Australian Digital Concert Hall
Conductor – Sam Allchurch
It is a rare treat in Australia to hear Bach’s St John Passion on period instruments, available to watch via delayed broadcast from the Australian Digital Concert Hall in a performance by the Choir of Christ Church St Laurence and Ensemble in Residence, The Muffat Collective. The concert was expertly led by Matthew Greco and excellently conducted by Director of Music, Sam Allchurch, sensitive to the dramatic pace and emotion of the music.
Memorable moments included the outstanding and rousing delivery of Richard Butler who guided the story in the role of Evangelist and also sang the tenor arias, the superlative artistry of all four solo singers, the unremitting duties of a solid continuo team (organist Anthony Abouhamad, cellist Anton Baba and ever-present lutenist Simon Martin-Ellis), and the choir’s detailed attention to the message, sentiment and poetry of the text.
The Passion according to St John tells of the betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus. In the programme, Sam Allchurch noted the arresting sounds of the opening to this masterpiece, and the “dualities of Christ as both fully human and fully divine, of the majesty and lowliness of God, of the cosmic struggle between good and evil.” It is with remarkable skill that Bach draws the listener right in to be part of the narrative, the moral substance being that through earthly suffering and humiliation, heavenly salvation is achieved. That victory can emerge from tragedy is a bravely optimistic hope, and who cannot be affected when we are experiencing or witnessing such disturbing contemporary world events – false imprisonment, hostile crowds, corruption, betrayal, torture, killing, cruelty……
The piece opened powerfully, an immediate sense of anguish delivered through the throbbing bass instruments, unremitting string semiquavers, clashing wind harmonies and cries of ‘Herr’ (Lord) repeated in the choir. For the rest of Part I, Anthony Mackey lent his lovely rich bass voice to the part of Jesus, while the chorales ‘O große Lieb’ where mankind inhabits a world of pleasure and joy, whilst Christ must suffer, and ‘Dein will gescheh’, a prayer for patience in the time of suffering, were beautifully rendered.
Jesus is taken to be killed for the sake of all people. Hannah Fraser was poignantly touching in the Aria ‘Von der Stricken’ in which Jesus allows himself to be wounded in order to set us free from sin, her mellifluous tones and intertwining parts of oboists Adam Masters and Kirsten Barry adding to the sense of heartache. Soprano Anna Fraser’s Aria ‘Ich folge dir’ was beautifully flowing in its description of faithfully following Jesus with joyful steps, here accompanied by Mikaela Oberg and Jessica Lee in unison on flutes.
The characters of Peter and Pilate were sung by Christopher Richardson, with one-liner roles of maid taken by Amber Johnson, and guard by Liam Green. Following Peter’s very moving denial and bitter weeping, Richard Butler then sang the Aria ‘Ach, mein Sinn’, a performance highlight with strings adding to the sense of remorseful disquiet. A chorale reflecting on one’s conscience closed Part I.
Part II continued with the trial of Jesus, represented in dramatic fast-paced dialogue – the choir was fervent as a riotous throng with much clamouring outcry. Flutes and oboes were nicely detectable in their rapid accompaniments. Christopher Richardson’s Arioso ‘Betrachte’, meine Seel’ with its vivid imagery of Christ’s piercing thorns and wormwood blossoming and bearing fruit was heart-warmingly lyrical, and special for the heavenly muted violins of Matthew Greco and Rafael Font and lute accompaniment. The delicate violins provided the obbligato for the next tenor Aria ‘Erwäge’, in which Christ’s blood-stained back symbolises a rainbow. Anton Baba on cello added a thrilling profundity to this aria, sung exquisitely by Richard Butler. Amidst the intensity were some chorales of reflective nature, and Christopher Richardson’s very expressive Aria ‘Eilt’ encouraged the view that the Crucifixion would lead to good fortune for humankind.
Hannah Fraser brought an emotionally pained sorrow to the Aria ‘Es ist vollbracht’ (where Jesus dies), most sympathetically accompanied by the lute, and Anton Baba on viola da gamba. ‘Mein teurer Heiland’ featured bass Christopher Richardson and Anton now on cello obbligato, as well as a hushed four-part chorale providing a calm acceptance that Christ has atoned for us. Another highlight was Anna Fraser’s singularly affecting ‘Zerfliesse, mein Herze’, an outpouring of grief that Jesus is dead. Mikaela Oberg on flute, Adam Masters on oboe da caccia and Anton Baba on cello added sobs and sighs to the heart melting in floods of tears.
The final chorus ‘Ruht wohl’ was peacefully lilting, followed by a sincerely uplifting chorale which prompted widely enthusiastic applause. In the Parish newsletter for March, the Rector of Christ Church St Laurence, Father Daniel Dries, was considering taking his iPad into the church and sitting on a hard pew to simulate the full experience of the livestream. I wonder whether he did that.
