Review – Johannespassion, Marcus Bosch and Cappella Aquileia
Johannespassion visiting the Stadtkirche
Church music – The Heidenheim Opera Festival under chief conductor Marcus Bosch presents the dramatic St. John Passion in the Stadtkirche at matinee time.
Unusual: a concert at matinee time, unusual: an oratorio in the Stadtkirche with a guest ensemble, unusual in these parts that the Heidenheim Opera Festival appears as organiser with its international chief conductor Marcus Bosch, also unusual: the sparse attendance on Palm Sunday morning for J. S. Bach’s St John Passion.
The modest attendance for the Passion in the Stadtkirche may also have been due to the tightly packed schedule: the Aalen Kantorei was scheduled for rehearsal at noon and a performance of the St Matthew Passion at 5 p.m. in the Pauluskirche in Heidenheim. There, on Saturday evening, the St John Passion had already been performed in the Festival Hall with Marcus Bosch on the podium, together with the Young Chamber Choir of Ostwürttemberg, “Vokalwerk” and the Festival Opera Orchestra as part of the “Master Concert” series.
A double hour of sacred music
The performance on Sunday in Aalen was also masterful. Marcus Bosch conducted the top-class ensemble with breathing precision, broad thematic arcs, keen attention to detail, and well-composed structure. A magnificent concert, an intense double hour of sacred music and spirituality for the Passion season.
The St John Passion begins with the people’s invocation of the Lord. This large opening chorus is often performed as the dull prayer of an oppressed people crying for redemption. On Sunday morning with Bosch, “Herr, unser Herrscher” (“Lord, our Ruler”) came across more as the demonstration of a “woke”, more rebellious than subdued, people – and set the tone for the following Turba choruses, in which the people express their concerns in dramatic poses. Fast tempo, balanced symmetry of the voices, excellent vocal quality, an outstanding sound from the mixed choir prepared by Andreas Klippert.
Mental and acoustic pleasure
The high level of the opening numbers of the work is maintained all the way through to the magnificent final chorale. The choir is a pleasure both acoustically and mentally, and the Cappella Aquileia orchestra no less so, both as an ensemble and in the solo passages.
The soloists are superb: Sophie Klußmann with a bright timbre and cheerful expression, Henriette Gödde with classical performance and elegance. Michael Feyfar sings the Evangelist with confident, musical storytelling; he also performs the splendid tenor arias that the young Bach composed. Baritone Gerrit Illenberger covers both solo bass roles – the words of Christ and the arias – with great vocal artistry. The supporting roles are drawn from the ensemble and are anything but a budget solution: Kristina Szegedi-Dinušová (soprano), Michael Weigert (tenor), Matthias Lika (bass for Peter and Pilate) – all delivering professional, sonorous contributions to this dense, dramatic, musically and spiritually impressive Passion music.
