Bach Festival Offers First-Rate Performance Schuller Guided Splendid Performers Through Bach’s ‘St. Matthew’s Passion’ With The Skill Of A Master

The Northwest Bach Festival’s “St. Matthew Passion,” Friday, Jan. 20, First Presbyterian Church

The 17th Northwest Bach Festival concluded in glory with two magnificent performances of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion.” Spokane has a history of re-creations of Bach’s greatest choral masterpiece going back at least as far as the Bach bicentennial in 1950. But I cannot imagine any was more moving than the two heard by standing-room-only audiences at First Presbyterian Church Friday night and Sunday afternoon.

The guiding spirit of these stunning performances was Gunther Schuller, artistic director of the festival. The work’s demands are immense. The “St. Matthew Passion” is long - three-and-one-half hours - as long as Mozart’s “Figaro” or Wagner’s “Tristan.” Furthermore, Bach’s oratorio requires the marshaling of huge forces - two orchestras, three choirs and ten soloists. “It’s the closest Bach ever came to writing an opera,” Schuller observed at a rehearsal.

Unlike opera - with its acting, costumes and sets - the drama of the “St. Matthew Passion” must unfold through words and music alone. Bach lays it out in the score, but the conductor must gauge the pacing of accumulating dramatic and musical tension with the greatest of care. Otherwise the work seems not relentlessly powerful, but just very, very long.

Schuller guided the work with the skill of a master pilot docking a great ocean liner. He controlled the unfolding of Bach’s oratorio with the same skill he would bring to a Brahms symphony. He was abetted by some splendid performers.

Paul Austin Kelly’s faultless diction and clear, high, tenor voice makes him a Bachian treasure as the “Passion’s” Evangelist. The beauty of bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk’s phrasing and the richness of his low notes gave a special quality of weariness to Christ’s words. ShirleyQuirk brings formidable dramatic sense to his singing, the result of a major operatic career.

Soprano Janet Brown, with her purity of tone, pinpoint accuracy and precise diction, confirmed the stunning impression she made earlier in the festival. JoAnne Bouma’s velvety mezzo was a pleasure always, even when the clarity of her words was lost. Baritone Frank Hernandez was secure and impressive in the work’s shorter solos.

The chorus has as important a dramatic role in Bach’s “St. Matthew” as it does in Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godounov.” The Bach Festival Choir, trained by Randi Ellefson, fulfilled Bach’s demands. The group sustained the “Passion’s” energy whether the mood was the quiet beauty of its hymn-like chorales or its cruel outbursts of mob violence. The piping voices of Tamara Schupman’s children’s choir added an innocent ring to the massed choruses.

The orchestra playing, too, was first-rate. The instrumental obbligatos by violinist Kelly Farris and Michael Price and by viola da gambist Margriet Tindemans were most impressive.

In addition to Schuller’s authoritative leadership, there has been another masterful hand at work in this year’s Bach Festival - two hands, in fact. They belong to Ilton Wjuniski, one of the world’s greatest harpsichord players. His accompaniments in the “St. Matthew Passion” were masterful as was his solo and chamber music playing in the festival earlier concerts.