Advedioed H«Am—iwoo-—svf&fln—-\ Pags om
Joirh ng forces to mark 21 years of twinning
CELEBRATING
years of the twinning of
Guildford and Freiburg,
the Guildford Philharmonic Choir was joined
by its German counterparts,
the
Freiburger
Bachchor and that splendid orchestral ensemble,
the
Brandenburg
Sinfonia, for a performance . of
~Bachs
St
Matthew Passion, in the
cathedral on Saturday.
Nearly
three
long, even with the judicious cuts, Bach’s St
Matthew Passion is the .
more reflective of his two
great settings of the
Passion
narrative.
However, drama is far
from absent, and in the
interjections of the often
angry crowd, the combined choirs cut through
the acoustic. If in the first
chorus some voices stood
out overmuch, the texture
soon settled down to a
hours
pleasing
homogeneity,
- and the singing exuded
confidence. The Surrey
County Youth Choir’s
small but important contribution,
the
ripieno
' chorale in the opening
. chorus, came through
clearly.
The part of Evangelist
is taxing for any soloist,
and Stephen Douse paced
the role sensitively, with a
clear but rich tone. He
was partnered by an
excellent, if restrained
and
slow-moving
Christus
in
Colin
ly effective.
The interpretation was
fascinating, in places idiosyncratic. There were sud-
Campbell. Two contrast- " den alterations of tempo
ing soprano arias showed * within movements, many
the limpid soprano voice
of which with a sturdy
of
Helen
Neeves
to
rallentando, not always
advantage, set off by loveappropriate
in
music
ly playing from flute and
which, for all its solemnioboe. Contralto Jeanette
ty, is essentially based on
Ager
came
through
the dance. Surprisingly,
strongly, adding considertwo arias with rapidly
able drama to her intermoving solo string parts
pretations.
were taken extremely fast.
Notwithstanding
a
pleasing ‘tone, tenor Jon
English seemed taxed by
some othls hlghest notes.
Standing
notice;
in
at
Lynton
characterised
short
Black
the small
bassgfoles superbly. If his
tone was forced earlierin
the performance he had relaxed by the time he
came to his last aria,
Mache dich, mein Herze,
rein,which was particular-
The conductor Jeremy
Backhouse
worked
extremely hard to keep his
forces together. The result
was a very creditable performance in imposing if
acoustically
less
than
ideal
surroundings.
Above all the spiritual
message of Bach’s “great
work rang true.
Shelagh Godwin