It is almost twenty years since the Melbourne Bach Choir began an impressive musical journey with Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion at All Saints Anglican Church in East St Kilda. Back in the same venue, and a little later than the customary Easter offering, MBC’s Artistic Director and conductor, Rick Prakhoff, assembled an inspired program that was perfect for an extended Easter season.
Bach’s celebratory Easter Oratorio and Ascension Oratorio were each prefaced by shorter works that were in keeping with what followed. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Felix Mendelssohn, for his revival of Bach’s St Matthew Passion – at the age of 20! His “Jesu meine Freude” (1828) opened the second half of the program and Bach’s influence is quite clear, although the 21-year-old composer put his own mark on this seven-minute work with some unexpected harmonic shifts. Full marks go to the sopranos for some terrific sustained high notes in this work.
The opening work came from the wildly precocious Mozart, who composed Litaniae Lauretanae K 109 in 1771 at the age of 15. Scored for strings (minus violas), continuo, choir and soloists, it is in five movements. For these performances, members of the choir were divided into two groups, flanking the orchestra. While this was not musically necessary, the stereo – almost antiphonal – effect made for fascinating listening. The choir made a strong impression with the opening of what was a buoyant Kyrie. The very uneven numbers of male and female singers continues to plague many choirs, but a shining soprano sound and a valiant effort on the part of enthusiastic tenors and basses provided definition to the harmonic lines. The final Agnus Dei chorus ended with an extremely well-blended pianissimo that seemed to hang in the air.
Although their lower notes tended to be somewhat lost in this acoustic, all four soloists sang strongly, with soprano Olivia Cranwell leading the way in the Sancta Maria. Listeners who had heard tenor Andrew Goodwin win hearts and minds with his stunning performance as the Evangelist all those years ago were once again reminded how supremely well suited his vibrant tenor voice is to oratorio – thank you, Rick Prahkoff for this introduction. In this work and those that followed, Goodwin’s capacity to spin out long, long legato phrases using flawless breath control was – well, breathtaking. Clear diction is also amongst his technical assets.
Always a committed singer, who engages directly with an audience, Sally-Anne Russell used the appealing warmth of her rich mezzo voice expressively throughout the afternoon. She sang the alto arias “Saget, saget mir geschwinde” (Tell me, tell me quickly) from the Easter Oratorio and the Ascension Oratorios’ soulful “Ach, bleibe doch” (Ah, stay yet) with detailed regard to the spirit of the texts – all, thankfully, provided in the original Latin or German plus English translation in the program. Part of the emotional impact of these arias was also due to the outstanding oboe and oboe d’amore playing of Stephanie Dixon. The full, smooth, plaintive tone of her oboe for the extended solo of the Easter Oratorio Adagio was a joy.
Lisa-Maree Amos made important contributions to several pieces, her flute winding gracefully around Goodwin’s voice in the Easter Oratorio tenor aria “Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer” (Gentle should be the sorrow of my death). Delicate playing came from flutes, oboes and upper strings for the Ascension Oratorio soprano aria “Jesu, deine Gnadenblicke” (Jesus your gracious look), but Cranwell’s more forthright, operatic delivery – finely centred as it was – would have benefitted from a more floating tone to match this approach. The same was true of the long Easter Oratorio soprano aria “Seele, deine Speziereien” (Soul, your spices) with its extended passages for solo flute. Christopher Hillier also has a more operatic style of production, which served him well as John for the interchanges between the four soloists. His ability to pare back his impressively focused baritone voice into a pianissimo at key moments enabled suitable expressive range.
One of the most exciting aspects of the afternoon’s performance came from the timpani and trio of trumpets that heralded in the Easter Oratorio Sinfonia and provided a wonderfully celebratory note to the final chorus. Throughout all works, the small band of 23 players gave a more than accomplished performance, the continuo players and leading violinist, Jaso Sasaki also distinguishing themselves.
This was a wonderfully uplifting performance and a great credit to Rick Prakhoff and his spirited contingent of choristers.
Image supplied.
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Heather Leviston reviewed “Melbourne Bach Choir: In Concert”, performed at All Saints Anglican Church, East St Kilda on April 21, 2024.
