Walk on Golgotha: Bach Collegium Japan performs the St. John Passion

Leipzig, April 7, 1724. A newly appointed cantor introduces a new work to his congregation in St. Nicholas Church. What do they think of this work, which exactly 300 years and countless performances later represents the high point of 18th century music? Its dramatic immediacy ensures that we are not just spectators, but spectators watching men with weapons and burning torches. An unarmed man is greeted with a kiss by another, but is then arrested. We sense that this act could have huge consequences, for we are on Golgotha ​​and are forced to witness it.

Bach’s St. John Passion begins with a 14-bar instrumental prelude whose driving sixteenth-note rhythm and clashes of baroque oboes and flutes are as unsettling as the events about to take place in this place of skulls. Conductor Masaaki Suzuki drove Bach’s stirring turbulence in G minor to that first mighty cry of “Lord!” The effect was perhaps not quite as powerful here, as we had a 20-person choir in a 6,000-seat hall.

But no one is as good with Bach as the Bach Collegium Japan, founded in 1990 by Suzuki, who remains its music director today, with the aim of bringing historically sound performances of great Baroque works to Japanese audiences. The Bach Collegium has recorded the work at least three times and has toured with it in recent years. There is no corner of this score that Suzuki has not mastered, but this deep familiarity has not always avoided the suspicion of routine on this occasion.

But then all but one of the vocal soloists made their Proms debut, in front of 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 debutantes. Unlike some others, he sang from his score, but as the text often reminds us, he is here to narrate the actions that will fulfill the prophecies contained in his book. His singing had convincing authority and a beautiful sound. Bass Christian Immler, a German who had studied in England, was Jesus, singing with impeccable diction and intonation, but not quite with the vocal weight and authority that Christ has had at all times. His aria (not as Jesus, but as bass soloist) with choir towards the end of the second part was very beautiful, however.

Tenor Shimon Yoshida is a regular guest at BCJ and his effortless musicianship is a joy to behold. His voice may not be so heady that it will ring out to the farthest reaches of the Albert Hall, but his baroque style seems natural rather than rehearsed. Countertenor Alexander Chance is still young in looks and sound but so established that it is a surprise to see him as a Proms debutant. He commands the key line of the work and proclaims “It is finished” with the requisite vocal dignity.

The pure tone and melodious phrasing of soprano Carolyn Sampson, the only soloist not making her Proms debut, seemed to float effortlessly to the top of the vast building, and she was the ideal complement to the two flutes in “I Follow You”. and was again moving in her aria in the second part, “Zerfließe meine Herzen”. Sampson sings music from all eras, but her vocal qualities seem to fit particularly well with Baroque music.

The conductor and choir presented the choirs and chorales very beautifully and were particularly impressive in the turba (audience) sections. In Suzuki’s hands, the drama intensified in the longer second part, and the final chorus “Rest well” (Rest in peace) was indescribably comforting.

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