In the bad old days of 1950s Baroque performances, the Passion would last four hours, minimum. “Slow” was considered the equivalent of “holy.” Since then, tempi have been moderated and lately, turbocharged.  A contemporary performance, without a note cut from the score, can finish in under three hours. One may quibble about what constitutes perfect tempo, but Maestro Grant Gershon’s choices seemed right on the money. The sobbing 6/8 of the initial triple-chorused and double-orchestra’d movement (Kommt, ihr Töchter) sobbed with a bit more anxiety than contemplation, but was nowhere near the NASCAR-champion speed of a Riccardo Chailly and others in which the solemnity of the story is in constant danger of being swamped in a miasma of turgidity.

Not only must tempo be carefully calculated, but also the ever-changing set pieces must move briskly from movement to movement, now a soloist, now a chorale, now an aria. Maestro Gershon kept everyone on their toes to move things along with just a breath allowed between movements. Orchestra members had to be sure page turning was brisk and instruments at the ready for the next downbeat.

The orchestra was absolutely tops: Southern California’s own Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra under the leadership of concertmaster Cynthia Roberts, with an historically informed, slimmed-down Los Angeles Master Chorale handling double-chorus duties and performing stylishly with the highest level of professionalism that has become the hallmark of this ensemble under Maestro Gershon’s direction. The Disney Hall resident Los Angeles Children’s Chorus contributed 17 light-weight voices that could only occasionally be heard in the first ripieno chorale (O Lamme Gottes unschuldig), pointing once again to the absence of trained boys’ voices, intended by the composer to identify the subject of Chorus II’s questions, and in the final chorus of Part the First (O Mensch, bewein’ dein Sünde gross) to point an accusatory musical finger at the audience. In the latter instance, Master Chorale women were employed to augment the children.

The Passion was performed in the original German language (with super-titled English translations), with varying degrees of success, and that being defined as clarity of speech. Steve Pence, portraying the words of Jesus, was superb in every respect: a rich, gently commanding bass voice conveying both the German language and the textual pathos in a truly authentic manner. Also impressive was Jon Lee Keenan, whose tenor had the vocal gravitas that Pablo Corá lacked. Mr. Corá was clearly miscast here as Evangelist, as his sweet, lyrical voice could not sustain a telling of the Passion story despite an heroic effort that included overdramatizing the text. Also drawn from the Master Chorale were soloists with varying degrees of success, some conquering with beautiful tone, others with excellent German, or both. Notable among these were Deborah Mayhan, Abdiel Gonzalez, Gregory Geiger and Reid Bruton.

Musica Angelica was in top form, totally comfortable in the Baroque style as appropriate as the music world currently accepts it to be, and peopled with the best talent one could wish for. Most exceptional was William Skeen’s gamba obbligato for Komm, süßes Kreuz, so will ich sagen, so beautifully sung by Mr. Pence.

For tickets to other Los Angeles Master Chorale concerts, call (213) 972-7211 or visit www.lamc.org

 

Douglas Neslund is Classical Voice correspondent and a noted voice/choral teacher in Los Angeles.