University of Essex Choir, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Conductor Ben Vonberg-Clark, May 4th 2024
Yesterday, I was privileged to be taken to Snape Maltings in nearby Suffolk to experience Bach’s St John Passion. Details in photographs (please click to enlarge).
I have long appreciated the opening of this work, and I have, in my own eccentric way, claimed it as an inspiration for Philip Glass operas and some of his other music. But now I recognise its true power, where, yesterday evening, the entry of the chorus was body- and mind-tingling to the nth degree, even spiritual in a frighteningly awesome and sublime moment in time. And from that point onward, I was captivated. Even more so than earlier experiencing this choir and orchestra’s performance of the Mass in B Minor at Snape which I had thought, till now, to be the greater Bach work. The rest of the St John Passion that I had before felt to contain too much recitative and continuo for my tastes, became now, for me, more intimate than some great chamber music, the cello in particular with mesmeric minimalism. The woodwind, too. The chorus continued its adept harnessing of an exciting energy. Overcoming the work’s difficulties with a faultless passion, to my innocent ears. All the vocal soloists seemed individually inspired, reaching out to the packed auditorium without diminishing the chamber intimacy. I was simply bowled over.
My previous reviews of local classical music: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/des-lewiss-classical-music-reviews/
My Classical Music Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/266989980069260/?ref=share_group_link
The Des Lewis Gestalt Real-Time Reviews 
You must be logged in to post a comment.