Dunedin Consort marks a Bach anniversary with intimate “St. John Passion”
2024 marks the 300th anniversary of the first performance of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion. The University of Chicago Presents series celebrated this milestone Friday night at Mandel Hall with the Dunedin Consort, led by their longtime music director John Butt.
The Dunedin Consort is a small group for this work, yet they are not strangers to the score, having recorded it in 2013. The Scottish ensemble performed with two singers to a part, with five of them doubling as soloists. The orchestra consisted of only fourteen musicians, including Butt himself, leading from the harpsichord.
Those looking for insight into Bach the contrapuntist were liable to be disappointed. Despite the small ensemble, balances were not clear. The fugal entries during the condemnation scene were indiscernible. And unlike many early music ensembles, the Dunedin Consort’s singers retain their individual timbres rather than blending. In passages for the females only, Jess Dandy’s hefty contralto tended to poke out of the textures.
But those who value Bach as a storyteller were treated to many compensating rewards. Butt’s narrative pacing was immaculate. His tempi were well-chosen and flexible enough to follow the contours of the text without seeming mannered. His sure sense of timing extended even to the duration of pauses, such as during Pilate’s interrogation of Christ and right after Christ’s death.
Throughout the concert, the musicians responded with rhythmic precision to Butt’s every turn. His subtle interpretation rarely called for raw power from them. But when it did—as in the fiery string figures in “Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen”—they ably supplied it. The singers’ German enunciation was crisp enough that one barely needed the text that was distributed via QR code.
The starring roles were taken by Nicholas Mulroy as the Evangelist and Matthew Brook as Christ. What impressed most about their performances—besides the general high level of their singing—was how effectively they altered their timbre from their in-character recitatives to out-of-character arias.
Mulroy’s narration was attentive to the text without veering into over-expression. This made his few moments of strong underlining—such as the brief moment of Sprechstimme during the choosing of Barrabas or the surprising tenderness during Jesus’s death—all the more notable. His solo arias, such as “Ach, mein Sinn,” were more broadly emotive.
Brook was even finer. His Christ was commanding and yet warm. His solo arias “Betrachte, meine Seel” and “Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen” were perhaps the most emotionally satisfying of the evening. The former was almost lullaby-like in its gentleness; the latter was thunderous.
Of the supporting singers, soprano Nardus Williams employed the greatest range of articulation and dynamic inflections, including clipped notes that added a spring to “Ich folge dir gleichfalls.” The only drawback was that her softest moments in “Zerfliesse, mein Herze” got covered by the ensemble.
Dandy’s rich, enveloping waves of sound made for dark and moving renditions of “Von den Stricken meiner Sünden” and “Es ist vollbracht.” The Pilate of bass Robert Davies was appropriately fear-struck without being melodramatic.
University of Chicago Presents’ season continues 7:30 p.m. December 6 with world premieres performed by the Grossman Ensemble. chicagopresents.uchicago.edu
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