BACH FESTIVAL ENDS WITH ‘ST. MATHEW’

In the high-ceilinged, Gothic sanctuary at First Congregational Church, Bach’s “St. Matthew” Passion can look mightily impressive, the large forces required for its performance clustered in the choir-portion of the room, the principals (conductor, Evangelist and Jesus) standing above the crowd, the audience overshadowed in every sense by the visual picture.

Acoustically, there are, and always have been--even going back to 1934, when the first Los Angeles Bach Festival took place on the premises--drawbacks. Sounds roll around, and are baffled and echoed, in the large room. Amplification helps some, but confuses more. One can never be entirely sure of what one hears in that place, though one can count on sounds, even those heard up close, always appearing to come from far away.

Still, music remains appropriate to this church-setting. And no work of Bach more appropriate than the “Matthew” Passion, which closed the 1985 L.A. Bach Festival, Sunday night.

As far as one could tell, Thomas Somerville led a cohesive, stylish, textually pertinent (the work was sung in German) performance dominated by the handsome and touching singing of the Festival Chorus and the virtuosic and immaculate playing of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. The two ensembles meshed most successfully.

Somerville’s tempos, always motivated, even when unorthodox, emerged logical and convincing in every portion. A deep sense of continuity and detail characterized the entire reading.

Contributing admirably to that result were the principals, Jonathan Mack (Evangelist) and Dale Morich (Jesus), both of whom used their considerable resources of tone-color in the interest of story-telling. They were seconded sensitively by some of the instrumentalists entrusted with obbligato duties: violinists Paul Shure and Ralph Morrison, flutists David Shostac and Susan Greenberg and oboist Allan Vogel.

A quartet of accomplished singers--Kathleen Riggs, Florine Hemmings, Jeffrey Gerstein and Michael Gallup--completed the solo roster.