We rarely get to concerts as we are generally too busy planning, organising and performing at our own; but when I spotted a mention of Simon Rattle’s return to CBSO after four years to conduct St Matthew’s Passion in BBC Music Magazine at Christmas, I went online and had booked within minutes.
In my teens and twenties I didn’t understand the Bach-hype. I’d performed very little of it, being part of the wonderful Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra which offered opportunities to perform some of the great large symphonic works, mostly Romantic / Twentieth century like Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, Rachmaninov’s Second and Shostakovich’s Fifth. We did some chamber music too in smaller groups which included the Third Brandenburg concerto. Back then, I preferred the clarity and perfection of Mozart and the passion of Beethoven.
However, having now performed more Bach, and fallen in love with it, I wonder why I didn’t discover it earlier. Perhaps you just need to be a bit older and have more music under your belt to start to (try to) understand the exquisiteness of the dissonances and harmonies – music that can, even today, sound incredibly modern.
So, up the M5 we went to Birmingham last night. Symphony Hall is wonderful and makes us Bristolians green with envy. Our rather dowdy Colston Hall is just, well, dowdy (OK, nice stairwell in the new foyer but the hall itself hasn’t been touched yet). Symphony Hall is comfortable, clean and bright, and has such a sensitive acoustic that means you can hear a man fainting from quite some distance – as we did during the first half!
The chorus arrived, ladies in matching – but not all that flattering – outfits. The children’s choir took up position at the left of the stage – girls in pink tops, boys in black shirts and pink ties! Ye gods – that’s one quick way to make boys give up singing, isn’t it? The chorus discipline was eye-catchingly impressive – co-ordinated standing and sitting, folder etiquette – all very regimented and tidy.
As Simon Rattle stepped up to the podium for his eagerly-awaited return the warmth of the applause was almost overwhelming. And then on to the music. From the outset, the clarity of the orchestra – playing without vibrato and with such exquisitely perfect intonation – was breathtaking. It meant you get past the notes and can hear the music. Rattle’s conducting style is so familiar (I’ve only seem him live once before but he seems to pop up on the telly quite frequently) yet so unexpected as he found depths, phrases, nuances in the score I’d never heard before – coaxing them from the orchestra with a lean towards them, a raise of an eyebrow, the fluttering fingers of his left hand.
The chorus were magnificent – incredibly precise, very tidy – but not as loud as I’d expected given the numbers and the quality. The first movement is really hard (particularly for the second chorus) but felt very assured, very secure.
And then Mark Padmore, singing the Evangelist, leapt to his feet and proceeded to tell us the story. From memory, throughout. In German but with such astonishing communication that it felt like he was singing in English. When he wasn’t singing he dominated the stage, standing and listening with his head to the side to hear the response from the soloists and choir, or sitting moodily in his chair, at the foot of Rattle’s rostrum, but with his back to the conductor. But despite neither being able to see the other, they were perfectly in tune with each other as they told the tragic, brutal, harrowing and gory story of Christ’s betrayal, crucifixion and death.
Christian Gerhaher, as Christ, was noble and dignified, and dramatically fearful and anguished in one of the most moving parts of the story as he prays to ask God if he might be spared the agony and humiliation of the really unpleasant death in store for him. (The answer was no.)
The other star of the show for me was mezzo Magdalena Kozená. Her voice has both clarity and fruitiness but the richness of tone doesn’t ever conceal the words or degenerate into warble. Her Ebarme Dich, coming just after Peter’s betrayal (itself is one of the most remarkable passages of the Evangelist’s solo), was incomparable. Anguished, heartbroken, tortured.
Clustered around the centre of the stage at that moment were Laurence Jackson (the CBSO leader elegantly playing the violin obbligato), Magdalena Kozená, Simon Rattle and to the right the continuo organist – world class musicians creating this absolutely exquisite moment. There were 2,100 people in the audience – a sell out, of course – but it felt as though they were performing it for each individual.
The concert was recorded for broadcast on Radio 3 on 10th March. I thoroughly recommend it.
I am so looking forward to this concert. 
The world of vegetables offers opportunities for really lovely food photography – notoriously difficult, as anyone who has tried it will know. Strangely, it doesn’t seem to have deterred whoever it is who takes photos of kebabs for fast food outlets! I’ve just designed this invitation for the press screening of a film about the production of Tenderstem® Broccoli, which is grown in Kenya. Although having said all that at the beginning, it doesn’t actually use any of their beautiful food photography!
Exultate Singers is performing Bach’s B Minor Mass in April – should be a memorable concert. One of the world’s greatest pieces of choral music combined with some really excellent musicians in the choir, orchestra and soloists line up. I’ve just sent the flyers off to print.
