The Montreal Symphony Orchestra presents this week its annual baroque meeting with the Passion according to Saint John by Bach. A concert generally very satisfactory despite some reservations about certain soloists.
The OSM has had the excellent habit for several years of inviting each spring a conductor specializing in “old” music (roughly speaking before 1800). After Bernard Labadie, in There Creation by Haydn, last year, and Paul McCreesh, the year before in the Passion according to Saint Matthew of Bach, the orchestra is collaborating this week with the Japanese Masaaki Suzuki, a great specialist in the music of the Leipzig cantor, whose complete cantatas and orchestral works he recorded, in addition to a good part of the keyboard scores – he is an organist and harpsichordist. It is also for him a return to the metropolis after having opened the 2022 Bach Festival with the Magnificat.
We were first warned at the start of the evening that the tenor Werner Güra, the only truly known soloist, who was also supposed to perform the demanding part of the Evangelist, was indisposed.
Fortunately, his colleague Mauro Peter, who was entrusted with the three tenor arias, agreed to take on this role, as he did at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw just last week under the direction of Trevor Pinnock .
We would have been hard-pressed to look for signs of fatigue in the Swiss singer, who is coping brilliantly with this double challenge. The tenor, whose voice is reminiscent of that of the Canadian Andrew Haji, perhaps does not quite have the stage – and even vocal – prowess of Julian Prégardien (Evangelist of the Passion according to Saint Matthew from two years ago), but the timbre is still beautiful, both warm and bright. We would just like him to be a little less in his score.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
There Passion according to Saint John of Bach at the Maison symphonique
Perfect German
German baritone Bernhard Hansky also has a fairly important part, that of Jesus (plus the bass tunes). The tone, round and woody, evokes that of Matthew Brook, who played the same role two years ago, but with a less significant presence. His last intervention as Jesus, It is completely free (“It is accomplished”), could have had more gravity.
Even if he is only there for two arias, the Floridian countertenor Reginald Mobley is overwhelming with the sweetness of his sound.
The Montreal baritone Geoffroy Salvas makes an imposing Pilate, despite German prosody to be perfected: we hardly feel the tonic accent of the sentences.
The Indian soprano Sherezade Panthaki is from another water. His German is somewhat exotic (no aspirated “h” in mein Herzefor example), the vowels a little undifferentiated, and the voice not always sustained, particularly in the high notes, and sometimes quavering.
The OSM Choir – 22 hand-picked singers prepared by Andrew Megill – was ideal, virtuoso and just meaty enough. Ditto for the orchestra, led by first violin Andrew Wan, with effective oboes, particularly in demand, and a magnificent Mélisande Corriveau on the viola da gamba for the air It is completely free.
Suzuki, whose left arm was immobilized by a splint, remained true to his reputation, giving great brilliance to the turba (the crowd choruses) and sensitivity in the more relaxed pieces like the Ruht full final. The famous initial chorus (Herr, unser Herrscher) was, however, perhaps too nervous for us to feel the pleading side of the text.
There Passion according to Saint John will be performed again this Thursday at the Maison symphonique at 7:30 p.m.