The annual performance of Bach's St John Passion given on Good Friday at St John's, Smith Square by Stephen Layton's choral group Polyphony is rapidly becoming a popular tradition. The occasion is now a sell-out, and compared with the slightly flawed one I heard two years ago, this year's gave immense satisfaction. Indeed, I would rate it among the finest John Passions I have ever heard.
Layton's great achievement is to pace the drama of the Passion story with unerring instinct. The judgement scene in Part 2 had a tremendous narrative sweep, gathering momentum with the crowd choruses and reaching an electrifying climax at the mention of Barrabas and the scourging. Then after the two meditative solos with viole d'amore, sensitively played by Theresa Caudle and Jane Norman, it was back for another sequence of crowd scenes enacted with thrilling immediacy: the mock salutations of Sie gegrüsset, the bloodthirsty exhortations of Kreuzige (Crucify) and vigorous fugal choruses thereafterSo accomplished is Polyphony that it can respond to what is asked of it with no technical inhibitions. The choral inquiries Wohin? (Whither?) in the bass aria Eilt, ihr angefochtenen Seelen (Haste, ye oppressed souls), for example, were delivered with virtuoso lightness of touch. Shorn, additionally, of their conventional pauses, they conveyed to perfection the breathless flight of the "wings of faith".
Crucial to the continuity of the drama is the Evangelist, and John Mark Ainsley's contribution was exemplary: urgent, angry, poignant as required. His control of the tortured chomaticisms at Peter's weeping was impeccable - the ensuing tenor aria (James Gilchrist) and chorale forming another unbroken unit to bring Part 1 to an effective end. David Wilson-Johnson's Jesus was characteristically forthright and authoritative.
Emma Kirkby skipped delightfully in Christ's footsteps in Ich folge dir gleichfalls (I follow thee joyfully) - another example of a swift tempo being deployed for expressive rather than purely virtuoso effect. Catherine Wyn-Rogers supplied stylish contralto solos, and Neal Davies was the excellent bass soloist, doubling as Pilate.
The players of Canzona gave nothing but pleasure. Katharina Spreckelsen and Jane Downer deserve special mention for their skilful handling of the oboe d'amore.