Chicago Tribune Review Of St. Matthew Passion 1987

Also available on Spotify 

Chicago Tribune link (Paywall version)

SOLTI`S NEWEST `PASSION` SPLENDID AND INSPIRED

By John von Rhein and Music critic

Chicago Tribune

•

March 21, 1987

Every performance of J.S. Bach`s monumental ''St. Matthew Passion'' so transcends what we normally think of as a concert as to become a great devotional occasion. Bach`s infinitely varied score gives this sacred drama of Christ`s suffering and death a universal resonance that not only draws audience and performers together, but, no matter how many performances one has heard, leaves one with a sense of only having begun to plumb its musical and spiritual depths.

Although this pinnacle of German Protestant sacred music was meant to be performed in church, Georg Solti, through his several performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, has proved the concert hall can be just as valid a setting. The ''St. Matthew Passion'' clearly holds a revered place in his affections. Sir Georg has prepared four different series of performances during his 18 seasons here, and it has been fascinating to observe the changes in interpretation (all for the better, one must add) that the years have wrought.

ADVERTISEMENT

Let us make no bones about it: What the capacity audience heard Thursday night in Orchestra Hall was the most fully realized statement of Bach`s masterpiece that Solti has ever presented in Chicago. Musically and dramatically it was all of a piece, with splendid choral singing beautifully set off by excellent contributions from the vocal soloists and chamber-sized CSO. The good news is that London Decca will record the ''St. Matthew'' with these forces beginning here next week, thereby fulfilling Solti`s long-cherished dream to have his interpretation documented on discs. It fully deserves that honor.

As with his reading of Handel`s ''Messiah'' a few seasons back, Solti adhered to an essentially Romantic conception that incorporated authentic touches of instrumentation. Nothing sounded overblown, nothing proved false to the spirit of the music. The 80 voices, augmented by the Glen Ellyn Children`s Chorus for the opening and closing choruses of Part I, proved the right size to preserve verbal and textural clarity, while rich and weighty enough to underscore the key dramatic moments of the Passion play. Through them one sensed the tremendous spiritual hold this music must have exerted on Bach as he wrote it, and on his Leipzig congregation as they experienced it for the first time.

Dominating the solo vocal contingent were two German singers, Hans Peter Blochwitz and Olaf Bar, both making American debuts.

Blochwitz invested the evangelist`s narration of the Biblical text with remarkable fervor, urgency, incisiveness and authority. His tenor remained sweet and true throughout its range and he coped easily with the rigors of the high tessitura.

He was matched in expressive power and musical finesse by Bar, an intense, commanding Jesus who reminded one a bit of the young Fischer-Dieskau both for the warm lyric quality of his baritone and his lieder-singer approach to the music. Both singers are major discoveries; they should be sensational on the recording.

The performance will be repeated Saturday night.