Philippe Herreweghe's approach to the Mass in B Minor can be breathtaking in the right context. The Belgian baroque specialist makes Bach's masterpiece into a platform for quiet self-reflection; the drama he builds is intricate and interior, and Collegium Vocale Gent – the revered period instrument ensemble and choir he founded in 1970 – typically plays and sings with a finespun, unpushy kind of poise. Even the way they tune reveals something of their ethos for careful listening: in painstaking slow unison, one note at a time.
That all works beautifully in an intimate venue or on record, but in the Usher Hall most of the subtlest details were wasted. This space needs something bigger and beefier than the Collegium's sweet, hushed opening Kyrie. The soprano soloists spun their Christe eleison in sighing, questioning phrases – at least I think they did, but I couldn't hear the lower voice so I can't be quite sure. The woodwinds were particularly elegant in the Gloria's Domine Deus, but only the upper register of the delicate baroque flute carried, so the line was frustratingly broken up. The 18-strong choir sang gracefully and included the soloists (sopranos Dorothee Mields and Hana Blazikova, countertenor Damien Guillon, tenor Thomas Hobbs and bass Peter Kooij), all of them fine voices but none particularly memorable.
With Herreweghe's pacing, the mass unfolded gently. The movements worked as a series of individual contemplation pieces, each its own little world rather than a unified whole with accumulating momentum. The tempos were spacious: the Et resurrexit was mild in its jubilation, the Sanctus came and went without cathartic breadth. The textures will probably sound gorgeous up-close when the performance is broadcast on Radio 3 in September. In the hall, energy levels just didn't hold up.
