Bach: St John Passion (Concert Review - The Age, 2012)
A TIMELY Lenten celebration, this performance of the shorter of Bach's two great Passion settings impressed more than anything else for its consistency, the combined choirs of Trinity College Chapel and the Consort of Melbourne as crisp and true in pitch from the grinding initial chorus to the work's final chorale. Similarly, the period-style experts of Ludovico's Band sustained a high level of ensemble and dynamic responsiveness, the strings a constant delight for their supple linear interweaving under the direction of Stephen Layton.
In vocal content, the performance gained more than most from its soloists. Carrying much of the workload, Swedish tenor Martin Vanberg proved an ideal Evangelist, showing few signs of strain in upper reaches and gifted with a transparent timbre that borders on male alto territory. He also took on the work's two active and challenging tenor solos with no apparent signs of stress; like the choir, as clear of voice in the last recitative as in the first.
Michael Leighton Jones showed at his sonorous best singing the part of Jesus, symbolically from a raised platform. Both mezzo Sally-Anne Russell and soprano Siobhan Stagg enriched the work with sincere and carefully honed pairs of arias; bass Joshua Bloom's Pilate made a startling impact, flexible but bordering on the stentorian; little of the Gospel's doubt and vacillation here.
Layton gave disciplined drama to the enterprise, seeking out contrasts and maintaining this Passion's swift-moving narrative flow.
Reviewed by Clive O'Connell
The Age, Melbourne, Australia