Promenading on Golgotha: Bach Collegium Japan perform the St John Passion

Leipzig, 7th April 1724. A newly-appointed Kantor presents a new work to his congregation in the Nikolaikirche. What did they make of this work that, exactly 300 years and countless performances later, stands at the pinnacle of 18th-century music? Its dramatic immediacy ensures we are not mere audience members, but bystanders, watching men with weapons and flaming torches. Someone unarmed is greeted by another with a kiss, but then arrested. We sense this act may have mighty consequences, for we are on Golgotha, and compelled to bear witness.

Bach’s St John Passion opens with a 14-bar instrumental prelude, its driving semiquaver rhythm and clashes in Baroque oboes and flutes as unsettling as the upcoming events in this place of the skulls. Conductor Masaaki Suzuki propelled Bach’s stirring G minor turbulence towards that first mighty shout of “Herr!” (Lord). Not so mighty in impact here perhaps, for we had a choir of 20 in a hall of 6,000 seats.

But nobody does Bach quite like the Bach Collegium Japan, founded in 1990 by Suzuki, still its Music Director, with the aim of introducing Japanese audiences to historically informed performances of great works from the Baroque period. It has recorded this work at least three times, and toured it in recent years. There is no corner of this score of which Suzuki is not the master, but this deep familiarity did not, on this occasion, always avoid a suspicion of routine.

But then all but one of the vocal soloists was making their Proms debut, and in an intimidatingly packed Royal Albert Hall, a tribute to Bach but also to Suzuki and his players and singers.

Our Evangelist was tenor Benjamin Bruns, the most successful of the debutants. He sang from his score, unlike some others, but as the text often reminds us, he is here to narrate the actions that will fulfil prophecies contained in his book. His singing had convincing authority and fine tone. Bass Christian Immler, a German who studied in England, was Jesus, singing with impeccable diction and intonation, but with not quite the vocal weight and authority at all times for Christ. His aria (not as Jesus, but as the bass soloist) with chorus near the end of Part Two was though very fine.

Tenor Shimon Yoshida is a BCJ regular associate, and his effortless musicality gives much pleasure. His is not a voice to command the farthest corners of the Albert Hall perhaps but his Baroque style has a natural rather than a studied feel. Countertenor Alexander Chance is still young, in appearance and sound, but so well established that it is a surprise to see him designated a Proms debutant. He has the key line of the work, and announced “Es ist vollbracht” (It is fulfilled) with the vocal gravitas it requires.

The pure tone and mellifluous phrasing of leading soprano Carolyn Sampson, the one soloist who was not a Proms debutant, seemed to float effortlessly to the top of the huge building. She ideally matched the two flutes in “Ich folge dir” (I follow thee) and was moving again in her Part Two aria “Zerfliesse meine Herze” (Dissolve, my heart). Sampson sings music of all eras, but her vocal qualities seem especially well suited to Baroque music.

Conductor and choir presented the choruses and chorales very beautifully, and were particularly impressive in the turba (crowd) sections. In Suzuki’s hands, the drama intensified in the longer Part Two, and the last chorus “Ruht wohl” (Lie in peace) was ineffably consoling.