Experiencing an Easter Tradition: Bach St. Matthew Passion in Amsterdam

A European choral tradition that I recently experienced for the first time was the annual performance of the JS Bach Passion According to St. Matthew at the renowned Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. On the face of it, this seems unlikely as a family holiday event--this work often extends longer than three hours, even four in some traditional older performances. But not in Amsterdam! Families abounded, and there were in fact April Concertgebouw performances by two different orchestras, totaling nine (!) sold out performances. The Dutch like their Bach. 

A sung Passion tells the story of the last hours of Jesus' life, including the crucifixion and entombment, stopping just before the resurrection. It is typically done in churches on Good Friday, two days before Easter Day. Bach wrote three versions, of which only the St. Matthew and St John survive intact. They would typically be done in two parts in Lutheran churches, with the congregants sitting in cold churches on hard wooden benches. There was an hour sermon delivered halfway through the 3-hour + music. The German Lutherans liked their church services!

In my trip to Amsterdam I skipped the modern instruments version by the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and instead saw the "early music" version by the Netherlands Bach Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Pieter Jan Leusink. This conductor is a bit controversial, recently returning to conducting this group after being dismissed for sexual harassment five years ago. He performs with this group prolifically, with over 100 annual performances throughout Europe, plus multiple recordings. For this performance he chose very brisk tempos that caused his long grey hair to flail about dramatically. There are lots of ways to perform this work. When I looked at available recordings, the range of timings was from under two hours to nearly four hours (the old, classic Klemperer recording from the 1960s). This is remarkable, when you think about it. Imagining singing "row row row your boat" at your normal speed, then either half or twice as fast. It's hardly the same song. In this performance there were lots of examples of such differences. For example, The famous bass aria "Mache dich, mein Herze, rein" went about dotted quarter = 60 here, versus the Klemperer tempo (with famed baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) of 30. The same goes for the opening chorus. Regardless of the chosen tempo, I think it should go at about the same tempo as the bass aria...both are laments in 12/8 rhythm, with dotted march character. Here, I think Leusink was a bit too fast at about 70-80, and the chorus lost its meditative quality ("hear my weeping"). On the other hand, one practical advantage of these fast tempos (and the conductor's choice not to do the repeats in ABA arias) was that, with intermission, we exited in a short 2 hours, great for the families present. That said, there were no cuts to the piece and, being Dutch, everyone in the audience was really well behaved, without fidgeting, loud page turning, or coughing. Admirable! 

The performance was solid, but not revelatory. There were about 16 orchestra players (using "period instrument" replicas from Bach's time) and 16 singers. About 75% of the singers appeared to have the piece memorized, despite the piece's 20+ choruses, likely due to their multiple annual performances. The performers were generally quite young, and a bit expressionless (visually), except for the tenor Martinus Leusink (son of the conductor, and a famed boy soprano in his youth), who sang several arias, using expressive hand gestures to illustrate the text meanings. This was effective and involving, but stood out among the otherwise statue-like solo contingent. Most of the important (and multiple) reflective arias came from choir soloists, and this was a mixed bag--I was disappointed by the rather wan soprano and bass in particular. The Evangelist Maarten Romkes was effective at projecting the hundreds of lines of sung biblical text, but lacked a bit of drama. The Jesus, bass Thilo Dahlmann, had an expressive and warm voice, just right for the piece. Overall I wish the conductor had relaxed some tempos just a bit, to give the soloists and chorus a bit more room for expression. While sometimes invigorating, the performance lacked a bit of pathos and reflection, needed in the Passions which are, after all, mourning the death of Jesus. 

I have a few other notes and observations.  There were no USA-style colorful Easter colors, bonnets, hats, ties, etc in the audience. Dress was generally reserved. Many families came together, and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves; I saw virtually none of them on their phone during the performance. Another  interesting thing was that after the orchestra re-entered the stage after intermission, they needed to re-tune, and the first violin needed to audibly shush the audience so they would become quiet as the orchestra tuned. The audience obeyed instantly. The Dutch are nothing but direct.

Lastly, it was great to at last see my first concert in the famed Concertgebouw hall, built in 1883 in a then-cow pasture, still echoed by the current Museumplein. It houses one of the best orchestras in the world (which goes by the name of the concert hall), and is used extensively by the musically avid Dutch public. There were lovely acoustics and a warm, reverberant sound, in part due to the all-wood interior. The stage is dominated by a big organ with its pipes. The balconies are labeled with the names of famed (and not so famed) composers, selected when the hall was built in the 1880s, eg.  Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, but also Spontini and Meyerbeer. I did find Bartok's name tacked on as sort of an addendum, on a lower set of boxes (but interestingly not Puccini, Stravinsky or Schoenberg).