ST NICOLAS Church was packed on Saturday night for Newbury Choral Society's performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion, accompanied on period instruments by Charivari Agrèable. It was performed in full, taking three-and-a-half hours, and in the original German.
The opening movement was taken rather too slowly and the whole performance took some time to settle, not surprisingly really, since orchestra and chorus had just one rehearsal together, to cover a huge amount of material.
The choir grew in confidence as the evening progressed, with more convincing entries and increased enjoyment of the fabulous music and precise settings of the text. Singing in German is a challenge, but a good decision, since Bach set every word with careful consideration, and much is lost in translated versions.
The choir excelled in the chorales, particularly the final one at the point of Jesus' death, sung unaccompanied to magical effect.
The acoustic in St Nicolas Church is very variable, depending on where you sit, and generally not so kind to the quieter, period instruments in this small orchestra.
Generally the sound was best when the cello and continuo accompanied recitatives, and many of these were stunning. There is no let-up for these players throughout the work and they did a super job. The viola d'amore aria accompaniment was also delightful.
Less successful were the winds, which in some of the arias came over muddy, or with the upper instruments just too quite. The exception was the oboe, which appeared like a ray of sunshine from time to time. It was hard to hear any string bass sound in the orchestra passages and I rather think that modern instruments may have better matched the large choir.
Six main soloists took the roles of the characters in the Passion, with three additional solos bravely added by gentlemen from the choral society.
All the soloists were excellent, in particular Charles Daniels as the Evangelist, who kept the story moving along beautifully and apparently effortlessly; a super performance, especially at the poignant movements of Peter weeping and Jesus' death.
Jesus' contributions are always set against as ethereal wash of string sound, and I loved Jonathan Brown's interpretations, although I felt sometimes he jumped in too quickly before the backing was established and the audience prepared.
The whole performance was driven by the tireless Leo Hussain, the principal conductor of the society, and many congratulations are due to him for making this evening so successful.
