It’s a shame that Bach never heard his B Minor mass in its entirety. While each individual chorus or aria is gorgeous, stringing them together into a whole leaves a listener awed by the way he makes every one of the 27 parts different, telling, expressive of the words. Nothing is lesser.
Saturday night’s performance at St. James Cathedral brought this out clearly. The 80-plus members of Seattle Pro Musica sang with clarity, balance, and a pure tone which enhanced the harmony and made it easy to follow each section’s individual line. (Their next appearance is June 1, with Andrea Bocelli.)
The four soloists—soprano Kendra Colton, counter-tenor Joseph Schlesinger, tenor Zach Finkelstein, and baritone Charles Robert Stephens—are all steeped in Baroque performance, and with the exception of Colton their voices mirrored that purer line used by the chorus and instrumentalists. Colton’s voice had a light, quite fast vibrato throughout, and while it was a fine voice, a more boyish sound would have matched the other soloists better.
Pacific MusicWorks Orchestra, 23 players strong, was never drowned out by the large group of singers. On the contrary, sited between the singers and the audience, the orchestra made a strong point for using a Baroque instrument group for Bach’s works. It provided far more variety of sound in combinations of instruments and singers than would a group of modern instruments.
Pacific MusicWorks Orchestra (Photo: Ron Anderson/SDPProductions)
It’s a superb group. Seattle is fortunate to have not just one, but two Baroque orchestras of international caliber, Seattle Baroque Orchestra and this one, led by violinist Tekla Cunningham.
One of the fascinating points brought out in this performance is Bach’s use of different groups of instruments, thus different timbres, to accompany the singers. For most solos and duets, he adds an obbligato line, that is, a solo instrument playing an often ornate, complementary part, usually above the soloist: notable here because of the distinct qualities of the instruments and the world-class (and I am not exaggerating) quality of those who played them.
Thus, for the beautiful duet “Domine Deus” for soprano and tenor, the gentle, warm flute of Janet See sang with it, with just quiet upper strings and the continuo strings plucking throughout. These last are the low sounding anchors in Baroque music, in this performance organist Joseph Adam, cellist Meg Brennand, violone player Curtis Dailey, and bassoon Anna Marsh.
Andrew Clark, horn (Photo: Ron Anderson/SDPProductions)
We had the plangent sound of Debra Nagy’s Baroque oboe sharing Schlesinger’s alto aria “Qui sedes,” plus strings as well, and immediately after, the clarion—and often treacherous—Baroque horn, played by Andrew Clark from London, in Stephens’ baritone aria “Quoniam tu solus sanctus,” with only continuo and bassoons.
The variety was endlessly changeable and arresting to hear, including Kris Kwapis’ brilliant-sounding trumpet, Cunningham’s sweet, clear violin, sometimes timpani with the small hard mallets used in baroque times, sometimes with all the winds, at others unison upper strings only.
The chorus sounded glorious and expressive, for instance in the fugal “Credo” and “Patrem omnipotentem,” and slow and movingly phrased in “Et incarnatus est,” ending with just a breath of sound in the “Crucifixus.”
Another very beautiful moment came close to the end, with Schlesinger’s lovely phrasing in the “Agnus Dei,” with unison upper strings. And then the majestic “Dona nobis pacem” at the end.
There was then complete hush for a long pause in the packed cathedral for this great work, before conductor Karen P. Thomas indicated each vocal and instrumental soloist, then the choir, for bows. Lastly, she herself. This integrated performance, the pacing, the balance, the excellent pitch sense and vocal quality of the chorus, the choice of soloists and musicians, the unerring ensemble, was due to her alone. We are fortunate to have her and her musical vision in Seattle.