Masaaki Suzuki was back at the Bach Festival after a memorable concert at the head of the OSM in 2017 and a more mixed visit with the Bach Collegium Japan in 2018. On Friday evening he conducted the Magnificat with the Festival Choir and Orchestra in a packed St. Andrew & St. Paul Church.
There is a Festival Bach effect and we have to recognize it. Seeing a church filled to the smallest seat in the organ loft, after an equally sold-out concert by the Ensemble Masques the day before, and a week earlier, a sold-out harpsichord recital by Luc Beauséjour at Bourgie Hall: everything this is more than remarkable, because truly tangible. Indeed, this fall, the Salle Bourgie is not even full for Les Violons du Roy and a harpsichord recital is generally among the “unsellable” in classical music concerts. Hats off to the organizers who struggle body and soul with artistic and audience results, in a recurring indifference, and now, almost embarrassing (compared to other largesse) of sponsors.
Because, among other things, it is indeed musicians from here who have had the chance to be hired by the Festival to work for several days with one of the world’s leading figures in the interpretation of Bach for the greatest pleasure. music lovers Friday night in Montreal and this Saturday in Quebec. Masaaki Suzuki took over as head of this week-long mini-academy from Julian Prégardien, Reinhard Goebel, Václav Luks and Jean-Claude Picard.
Suzuki has imposed a demanding program without making the slightest compromise. We heard it in the Forlane of the 1st Suite, where his phrasing slightly endangered strings and oboe, and in the 1st Bourrée at the fast tempo without concessions. The program demanded the oboes to the extreme and the instrumentalists had a lot of stamina, the first of them keeping their whole aura for the dialogue with the soprano in “Quia respexit” of the Magnificat. We would have liked the notice to give us the names and origins of the musicians and choristers, as well as the sung words, in particular of the cantata in German.
Nice surprises
In the MagnificatSuzuki has a surprise in store for us, since he interpolated four lauds sung during the first presentation of the Magnificat at Christmas in 1723. Suzuki transposed these movements (Vom Himmel Hoch, Freu euch und jubileert and one Gloria for choir as well as Virga Jesse floruit for soprano and baritone) which he integrated into the flow of Magnificat. Insertions are going well. the Gloria is cleverly linked to the “Fecit potentiam”, but creates a certain hiatus with the “Deposuit” which follows.
St. Andrew & St. Paul imposes space constraints. Everyone is very tight and the choir is centered and placed in a pack. The fact of not being spread out in width, however, harms the polyphonic readability much less than one might have feared. In addition, the soloists are forced to go back and forth between the back and the front stage, the men passing between the conductor in the process of conducting and the choir.
The soloists were all convincing, but we must take our hats off to Alexander Chance, a bright young countertenor who was part of the Gesualdo Six ensemble between 2016 and 2019. Wonderful find or coincidence, its pairing with the tenor Thomas Hobbs (duet of the Cantata BWV 63 and “Et misericordia” from Magnificat) borders on magic. Soprano Marie Luise Werneburg has a white, but not disembodied voice, which suits this repertoire very well. There too, a very beautiful moment of vocal communion with Werneburg, Brunet and Chance in the “Suscepit Israel”.
Masaaki Suzuki did what was expected of him: bring his expertise and enthusiasm to an ad hoc group to which he transmitted his passion, his experience and his knowledge. A large audience was there to hear the results of this work and this earned us, this time, a very beautiful concert which will be given in Quebec, at the Palais Montcalm, at 5 p.m. this Saturday.