United States Bach, St. John Ardour: Soloists, La Chapelle de Québec, Orchestra of St. Luke’s / Bernard Labadie (conductor). Carnegie Corridor, New York, 10.4.2025. (RP)
Bach – St. John Ardour, BWV 244
Andrew Haji (tenor) – Evangelist
Philippe Sly (bass-baritone) – Jesus
Joélle Harvey (soprano)
Hugh Reducing (countertenor)
Samuel Boden (tenor)
William Thomas (bass) – Pilate
For his remaining look as principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Bernard Labadie selected Bach’s St. John Ardour. He led a commanding efficiency wherein the drama of Jesus Christ’s remaining hours unfolded with distinctive cohesion and energy.
Though operatic in scale, the St. John Ardour was meant to be carried out in a church on Good Friday within the early seventeenth century. One can solely think about its emotional influence on these gathered on probably the most solemn day of the Christian calendar after weeks of religious reflection and preparation for Easter. Even in these extra secular occasions, the work is usually a gripping emotional expertise, because it was on this event.
Labadie achieved this by means of an unerring sense of steadiness on all ranges, particularly when integrating the solo singers into the efficiency. This was a sextet with vastly totally different vocal endowments and, for Labadie, the variations have been alternatives to be exploited slightly than obstacles to beat.
Andrew Haji, the Evangelist, and Philippe Sly, Jesus, stood heart stage surrounded by refrain and orchestra. Haji’s crystal-clear tenor declaimed the narrative of the Ardour with complete command of the textual content. He conveyed each dramatic flip within the story with out ever resorting to histrionics however slightly by means of enunciation, vocal colours and dynamics. Sly was a potent Jesus whose wealthy voice communicated energy, thriller and world-weariness to equal impact.
On this telling of the Ardour, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea who presided over Jesus’s trial and finally ordered his crucifixion, is the opposite key determine. Bass William Thomas, who sang the half, is commanding in determine and voice. Standing on the entrance of the stage, his vivid Pilate had the potential to overpower the efficiency. Labadie’s management and Thomas’s sensitivity made sure that he was an built-in, balanced a part of the entire.
Within the bass solos, Thomas was appropriately contemplative in ‘Betrachte, meine Seel, mit ängstlichem Vergnügen’ to the beautiful accompaniment of gambist Mélisande Corriveau and lutanist Sylvain Bergeron. In ‘Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen’, Thomas summoned urgency by means of fiery coloratura and eager consideration to the textual content. The drama was additional heightened by the surging and exact ahead propulsion of the strings and the plaintive interjections of the ladies’s refrain inquiring the place they need to hurry with such haste.
Countertenor Hugh Reducing is reduce from dramatic fabric, by no means breaking his idea of character as soon as on the stage. His good enunciation and impassioned supply, coupled with the virtuosic taking part in of oboists Stephen Taylor and Melanie Feld, created an all-encompassing sense of despair in ‘Von den Stricken meiner Sünden’. Gambist Corriveau’s charming, poignant introduction to ‘Es ist vollbracht!’ was equaled in scale and depth by Reducing. In a flash, he sang exultantly within the aria’s explosive center part.
Soprano Joélle Harvey tripped joyously along with her silvery tone by means of ‘Ich folge dir gleichfalls mit freudigen Schritten’ to the accompaniment of flutists Elizabeth Mann and Tanya Dusevic Witek. Harvey sang ‘Zerfliesse, mein Herze, in Fluten der Zähren’ in tones virtually parched of shade. The simplicity and purity of her voice intensified the fact of Jesus’s loss of life, as did the plaintive accompaniment of flute and oboe da caccia.
Samuel Boden’s tenor commanded not by means of quantity however slightly the depth with which he sang. Labadie offered Boden with the proper orchestral setting for the singer to specific the complicated emotion of ‘Ach, mein Sinn’. In ‘Erwäge, wie sein blutgefärbter Rücken’, Boden vied with violinists Krista Bennion Feeney and Alex Fortus for depth of expression. The delicacy of the tenor’s colorings and shadings rivaled his skill to form a phrase or wring emotion out of a sustained excessive word within the aria.
The Orchestra of Saint Luke’s was not merely a consort of excellent soloists. Delicate to Labadie’s each gesture and impulse, they added incomparable magnificence and emotion to the efficiency. La Chapelle de Québec, a interval vocal ensemble that Labadie based in 1985, offered drama all through.
The refrain’s each repetition of ‘Herr, unser Herrscher’ ratcheted up the emotional depth of the monumental opening refrain. The chorales have been sung with a religious simplicity which offered area for reflection but by no means impeded the efficiency’s incessant, ahead propulsion. The pivotal however temporary choruses that punctuated the exchanges between Pilate, Jesus and the gang have been thrilling and exact, particularly the crisp counterpoint of ‘Wir haben ein Gesetz’.
As with the opening refrain, every repetition of ‘Ruht wohl’ within the remaining refrain amplified its emotional influence, however the heat of their voices spoke of compassion, not dread. The ultimate chorale, ‘Ach Herr, lass dein lieb Engelein’, was sung full-voiced and forthright. In Bach’s day, the congregation would have left in silence. The silence lasted solely seconds in Carnegie Corridor earlier than the applause rang out.
Rick Perdian
Featured Picture: Bernard Labadie (conductor) with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s © Chris Lee
