The Academy of Ancient Music performing Bach’s St Matthew Passion on Good Friday is familiar enough, but this occasion saw a difference. To quote their publicity “this year AAM gets back to the music’s roots using a chamber-scaled orchestra that Bach himself might have recognised and solo singers who step out of the ensemble to share their testimony”. So, “stripped back to its essentials”, with just one voice to a part – SATB times two since the work is for double choir – and with those eight singers also sharing all the solos between them, the Evangelist included. There was once an (overconfident) claim that this was what Bach intended. Nowadays, in the cautious words of Bach Scholar Peter Williams, “One interpretation (of the sources) is that there should be at least two or better three singers reinforcing chorus parts already being sung by whoever takes the arias”. To be fair, AAM made no specific claim to authenticity, but rather offered “a chance to hear the work anew”.
In that regard this was certainly a success, so it matters little that, as in many broad artistic decisions, there are losses as well as gains. On the plus side, the expert small vocal ensemble permits great polyphonic clarity. One loss is the contrast between the weight of sonority of a chorus of sixteen or more and a soloist, though eight good professionals still made quite a “present” sound in the Barbican Hall. Another is that not all eight singers will be star soloists, though every one has at least one solo aria. Bach makes Chorus 1 the more important of the two and here those four singers also took much the lion’s share of the solos.
Baritone George Humphreys sang Jesus with full lower tone but also an ingratiating upper register, though even his fine singing could not prevent his later aria “Come, sweet cross” – heresy alert – from outstaying its welcome. Soprano Anna Dennis has a gleaming sound and shone whenever called upon. Countertenor Tim Mead sang his alto arias with familiar strength and an ethereal sound, delivering a moving plea for mercy in “Erbarme dich”. Nicholas Mulroy, somehow finding time from singing Bach somewhere else in the world, was the incomparable Evangelist. His appealing tenor sound is a familiar asset, but so are his diction and keen sense of the meaning of the text. He was poignant in all the most expressive moments, often deploying a mezza-voce that still had presence. He had to hold his score, not to read for the Evangelist role, but with a finger in the page where he had to continue as the sole tenor in Chorus 1, often as soon as his solo ended. He deserved recognition at the end, but presumably conductor Laurence Cummings, though acknowledging several instrumentalists, did not wish to single out any one of his eight singers. If so, it was a poor call for Mulroy and his audience.
Chorus 2 also had good singers, but they were given fewer solo opportunities, bass Rodney Earl Clarke being the most used. His “Give me my Jesus back” showed both his fine expressive line and his agility, and his Pilate was an effective interrogator. Cummings directed the AAM from the harpsichord with steady tempi that supported and never overstretched his singers. These instrumentalists form a highly skilled ensemble of course, with the leaders of both violin groups, Bojan Čičić and Julia Kuhn, offering eloquent solos. But then the AAM’s characteristic sound is always a delight.
