19th Bach Festival An Inspiring Success

Northwest Bach Festival First Presbyterian Church, Friday and Sunday

Spokane might seem an unlikely place for a successful Bach festival. But Spokane’s Northwest Bach Festival provided a spectacular finale to its 19th year with two inspired performances of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St. John Passion” at First Presbyterian Church on Friday night and Sunday afternoon.

From the foreboding restlessness of the opening chorus to the quiet closing hymn, conductor Gunther Schuller molded the festival’s soloists, chorus and orchestra into a force that brought dramatic authority and touching pathos to Bach’s majestic work.

Nobody who heard the Schuller-led performance of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” two years ago should have been surprised. But, then, fine musical performances are always a surprise - at least they should be.

The biggest vocal burden in Bach’s Passion music falls on the tenor soloist who sings the narrative role of the Evangelist. Rockland Osgood brought excellent musical understanding and beautiful German diction to the part. Osgood’s vocal excellence astonished me all the more when I learned that he was recovering from a cold which had left him nearly voiceless in midweek. Only the cruelly high-ranging parts of the work’s last recitatives betrayed Osgood’s troubles.

Cold and flu, in fact, also had struck soloists JoAnne Bouma and James Maddalena and several singers in the Bach Festival Choir. The choral singing often lacked sufficient clarity of diction and seemed deficient of basses.

Still, the quality of both Friday’s and Sunday’s performances was a testimony to the skill and devotion of soloists and choir. The orchestral parts, both in solo and ensemble playing, were outstanding.

The singing of Janet Brown was a special treat. She sang freely and gloriously in the lightness of “Ich folge dir gleichfalls” and the somber tenderness of “Zerfliesse, mein Herze.” The Syracuse-based soprano first appeared here as a last-minute replacement in the 1995 performance of the “St. Matthew Passion.” Her purity of sound and musical conviction make her a real treasure in Bach’s music.

To be treasured, too, was the variety Schuller achieved in the accompaniments for the recitatives with which Bach tells the Passion story. Bach leaves to the conductor a choice of parts for organ, harpsichord, cello, viola da gamba, string bass, lute and bassoon, even contrabassoon. “When to use what?” was the question Schuller answered inventively and convincingly. An especially appealing choice was his use of lute and theorbo to accompany the words of Christ.

The festival performances of the “St. John Passion” served as a climax to a week-and-a-half of concerts, lectures, master classes and open rehearsals devoted to the composer whom Schuller called “the master of us all.” As the festival’s artistic director, Schuller recruited some of the best international soloists to join local musicians in this extraordinary venture.

The 19th Northwest Bach Festival was an artistic accomplishment we in Spokane can be proud to call our own.

, DataTimes