Los Angeles Bach Festival Closes With Noble ‘St. Matthew’ Passion

Passion is a word of multiple meanings, all of them pertinent to Bach’s “St. Matthew” Passion. This inexhaustibly layered music--operatic and sacramental, earthy and sublime--closed the 67th annual Los Angeles Bach Festival, Sunday afternoon at First Congregational Church.

Thomas Somerville, artistic director for 19 of those festivals, has produced some distinguished “St. Matthews.” He understands the piece, and he understands his resources of site and sound, bringing them together in well-paced storytelling, deeply felt reflection and soaring choral aspiration. Some of the antiphonal interplay was minimized by spatial and acoustic realities, but this was another noble, richly nourishing effort.

His Evangelist was tenor David Connors, a narrator of dramatic assurance and clean, well-dressed voice, sorely tested but not bested by this musical marathon. Christ was sung by Robert Lewis, a bass of articulate weight and range. Harpsichordist Patricia Mabee and cellist Douglas Davis supplied their main instrumental support, sensitive in tone and touch.

Martha Jane Weaver’s warm, full yet agile alto made “Erbarme dich” the aria high point, as is usually the case. Craig Johnson revealed a very appealing bass, though he lost his way in “Komm, susses Kreuz” and never fully recovered. Holly Shaw Price was the sweet-voiced soprano and Scott Blois the clear, tasteful tenor, both occasionally sounding tentative.

Somerville’s fine-sounding orchestra drew heavily on the ranks of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Flutists Gary Woodward and Sara Andon, oboists Allan Vogel and Kimaree Gilad, violinists Elizabeth Baker and Steven Scharf, and cellists Davis and Armen Ksajikian handled the crucial instrumental partnerships with stylish grace, understanding well the expressive uses Bach made of virtuosity.

The Festival Chorus sang with ardor, well-honed diction and effectively punctuated phrasing.