REVIEW:Pro-Cathedral, Dublin
Bach’s
St Matthew Passion
is one of those works that overspills the normal bounds of concert-giving. Its length and concentration are such that its two parts are often separated by a long interval, as they were in this performance, conducted at the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin by the director of the Palestrina Choir, Blánaid Murphy.
Murphy is one of Ireland's most active and high-profile choral conductors. But a choral conductor is what she appears to be, and the St Matthew Passionuses an orchestra as well. Her gestures were far from specific when it came to imparting detailed information to orchestral players, and the musical outcome was of a style to match.
She set the tempo and let the players get on with it, and this resulted in a lot of routine playing, and indeed in some decidedly sub-routine moments, too. The woodwind sections acquitted themselves with greater purpose and consistency than the strings. Yes, the Orchestra of St Cecilia has played all of Bach’s sacred cantatas, and much more Bach besides. But with Murphy at its helm it didn’t play like a band that has Bach in its blood.
However, the conductor’s tempos kept things moving well, and her approach to the choirs was much more interventionist in terms of overall shaping and in the creation of dramatic contrasts. There was a richness of engagement in the singing of the three choirs – St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral Girls’ Choir, the Palestrina Choir, and the Dublin Bach Singers – that the orchestra rarely managed to match.
Her choice of soloists was strongest of all, with tenor John Elwes an always deeply involved Evangelist, a highly nuanced messenger alert to every twist and turn in the import of the awe-inspiring narrative he was carrying. Elwes is a singer who never stints in his delivery, and he has an unerring knack of keeping his listeners on the edge of their seats.
Alto Alison Browner is another experienced Bachian, and she showed herself to be a fervent communicator who can grippingly bind words and music with a rhetorical delivery that always sounded musically stylish.
Bass Jeffrey Ledwidge was a very level-headed Jesus, slightly on the stiff side of formal, and soprano Róisín O’Grady sang with clear tone and easy reach.
She may not yet have Browner's penetrating command of verbal delivery, but the two were beautifully matched in the duet So ist mein Jesus nun gefangen( Thus hath my Jesus now been taken).
The most effective of the smaller solo contributions came from Nathan Morrison, who was an alertly committed, if sometimes over-guttural Judas, Peter and High Priest.
