St George’s intimate acoustic makes it an ideal setting for the wondrous beauty of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, allowing the unfolding drama to communicate with great immediacy. In this performance, the chamber forces of Ex Cathedra, forming the two requisite choruses, were wrapped around the instrumental ensemble, the latter similarly divided, with two core continuo groups. When they repeat the work on home territory in Birmingham on Good Friday, an expanded lineup will include Ex Cathedra’s Academy of Vocal Music and a further community choir joining in the chorales.
The overall resonance of the choral singing was never in question here, but the differing timbres of the individual voices stepping forward to deliver solo parts helped to lend tonal colour, made up for what was an unvarying approach to dynamics. On the podium, Ex Cathedra’s director Jeffrey Skidmore exercised taut control but, curiously impassive, he offered no particular defining interpretative insight.
Tenor Charles Daniels brought a strongly flowing line to the evangelist’s narrative, while Martha McLorinan – singing the first alto solos – had a warm expressivity, notably in the aria Erbarme Dich, with Alison Bury’s violin obbligato. The finest sensibilities came in the baritone of Marcus Farnsworth, realising both dignity and compassion in the role of Jesus and in the bass arias. Tireless throughout the evening, Farnsworth also added weight to the chorus bass line, like the other soloists following the practice of Bach’s time in this regard. Yet this stepping out of character and back into the populace spoke as a gesture of humanity, symbolic of the essential spirit of this masterwork.
• At St John’s Smith Square, London, 17 April. At Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 19 April.
