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Barbican Hall, LondonConductor Masaaki Suzuki set an urgent pace while compelling performances from soloists helped pile on the tension
Thirty years after he founded his groundbreaking Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki seems to have aged barely a day, yet his performances with them don’t stand still. Sometimes this ensemble’s approach can be measured and understated; however, this performance of Bach’s St John Passion was underpinned throughout by a sense of heated and tightly plotted drama.
That feeling was established in the opening chorus, the strings launching their roiling accompaniment with real bite, the two twin oboes keening above. You don’t often hear a contrabassoon in a period-instrument band, but here there was one to provide a suggestion of shaking floorboards on the lowest bass notes. More than instrumental colour, though, the dramatic sense came from the urgent pace set by Suzuki as conductor. The chorales, which can seem to press pause on the action, seemed in this performance more like brief but important asides. Continue reading...