Moving ‘Passion’ lovingly voiced

Purer, sweeter, more austere and impersonal than Baroque composer Heinrich Schutz, who makes Bach sound like an overwrought Romantic, is the music of the Byzantine liturgy. Ivan Moody drew on that glorious tradition for his deeply moving “Passion and Resurrection,” heard Friday at St. Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine.

Sung gorgeously by the Portland, Ore.-based Cappella Romana, led by Moody, the performance set a high-water mark at the start of the fourth Eclectic Orange Festival sponsored by the Philharmonic Society. The concert was presented by the church.

This is a vocal tradition uncommon in the Western concert hall and takes some getting used to. A narrator chants the story of Christ’s Passion and resurrection, staying within a very narrow dynamic, expressive and melodic range. The choir sings hymns and antiphons, mostly a cappella, often in unison. When it breaks into harmony, the effect is like jeweled light flooding the space.

Moody added a small string ensemble to provide occasional, discreet accompaniment. A string bass, however, sounded pedal notes throughout the work, except at the moment of Christ’s death. Its absence then was shocking.

Absence is the critical characteristic of this style: absence of display, ego, of anything that draws attention from the involving narrative. Following the practice of the Greek Orthodox Church, however, the composer sets off sections of the work, which he calls “Ikons,” with chimed notes. That and the symbolic three-fold repetitions of certain lines remind us that this is not meant as entertainment.

Indeed, “Passion and Resurrection” is very close to being a church service, and that may have accounted for the respectful rather than overwhelming applause at the end. You don’t applaud a Mass at which you have been transported.

The 16 singers were exemplary in breath and dynamic control, creating timeless, endless melody by starting every new line at exactly the same dynamic and color as the one they had just finished. Tenor Leslie Green was the gentle, marathon Evangelist. Bass John Vergin was the warm, authoritative Christ. LeaAnne DenBeste sang the Mother of God with aching purity.

Moody’s a cappella “In You, All Creation Rejoices,” also in Byzantine style, was the encore.