Splendid Unity In St. Matthew Passion

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30725, 14 April 1965, Page 18

Splendid Unity In St. Matthew Passion

The Royal Christchurch Musical Society gave its annual performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion last evening. The soloists were Heather Taylor. soprano, Dorothy Hitch, contralto, and Rodney Macann, bass. Grant Dickson sang the part of the Christus and Anson Austin that of the Evangelist. The accompaniment was played by the John Ritchie String Orchestra augmented by some woodwind, and Wallace Woodley played I the continuo on the harpsi!chord

The performance was directed by Robert Field-Dodgson, who had trained his choir with meticulous attention to all fine details of balance, expression. rhythmic cohesion, and precision in attack and release

This year the work was sung in Christchurch Cathedral, with choir and orchestra massed at the west end of the building, the acoustic properties of which gave the choir opportunity to gain a greater sonority and homogenity of tonal blend. There was no proscenium to divide the choral forces into two distinct groups. That is the greatest difficulty encountered by big groups of performers when they are in most theatres.

The choir sang magnificently with careful response to Mr Field-Dodgson’s artistic interpretation of the work—an interpretation the chief virtue of which was a strong sense of unity. The part singing was always clear and sharply defined; and power was produced with thrilling effect without any forcing of the voices. This meant that the rounded and smooth resonance was never lost. While impressively dram-

atic effects—particularly in the “crowd” choruses—were always wonderfully telling, the most memorable and the most artistic singing lay in the more delicate portions which were always interpreted with technical skill in control and with convincing sincerity of meaning. Often these were but interpolated short phrases, but they contributed so much to the whole. No point was lost or overlooked.

There were no problems ot loss of balance between the choir and the orchestra and the grading of changes in levels of power was smoothly and efficiently handled. All this helped the performance to keep its splendid unity. The orchestra played superbly both in fine polish of technique and in artistic creation of atmosphere. There was excellent balance in the orchestra itself and an added richness of tone which came from the resonance of the building. The clarity of the playing was delightful, and there was a delicate finesse in nuances and in shapely ending to phrases. The soloists were a very good team indeed—-quite the best we have had here for a performance of this great work. Heather Taylor’s voice had freshness and vitality end was of eminently suitable timbre for this music. Her first aria, “Jesus Saviour,” was taken rather too quickly, but in all the rest of her work there was confident security and attractive appeal. Dorothy Hitch sang with admirable . technique, which gave her a beautifully clear line of vowels and hence a wide command of tonal colour In rhythm and in precision she had confident mastery over all the many difficulties and her interpretation was clear, well-planned, and artistic. Rodney Macann sang the various small parts of Pilate and Peter with dramatic effect and sang his arias, particularly "At Evening Hours”, acceptably. A somewhat thick production of vowels at times would militate against clear carrying power in the Cathedral. ' Both Grant Dixon and Anson Austin, on whom the largest burden of solo work fell, sang with splendid understanding, excellent technique, and moving sincerity. Their voices were well matched and they created excellent unity, and complementary effects of tonal shadings and levels of expression which did much for the sustained atmosphere of the performance In every respect this was a rendering of one of the greatest works in music in which all concerned can justly take pride. —C.F.B.