Prom 40: Transcending limitations, Bach's St John Passion from Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan at BBC Proms

Bach: St John Passion - Benjamin Bruns, Christian Immler, Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Mark Allen)

Bach: St John Passion; Benjamin Bruns, Christian Immler, Carolyn Sampson, Alexander Chance, Shimon Yoshida, Bach Collegium Japan, Maasaki Suzuki; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 19 August 2024

Ultimately this was Maasaki Suzuki's evening as he forcefully directed the music that he knows and loves, giving us a personal vision that more than filled the hall

The BBC Proms provide the opportunity for a large number of people to hear a remarkably diverse range of music, but with the proviso that not everything is really suited to the wide open spaces of the Royal Albert Hall and visiting ensembles, often on a tour of more conventional venues, can struggle to fit the hall's distinctive acoustics.

Maasaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan are in the middle of a Summer tour and their London stop at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall gave us a chance to hear Suki's masterly approach to Bach's St John Passion with Benjamin Bruns as Evangelist, Christian Immler as Christus and the bass soloist, plus soloists Carolyn Sampson, Alexander Chance and Shimon Yoshida.

Bach: St John Passion - Alexander Chance, Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Mark Allen)

Suzuki used 17 choristers with the soloists singing in the choir thus bringing the number up to 20/21, and an instrumental ensemble with 13 strings, and in the hall this meant that balance was somewhat off. In the big choruses, the upper strings simply did not carry against the choral sound, though the bass line, reinforced by double bass, bassoon and magnificent contrabassoon, was strong. But this is a compromise we must happily make to enable us to hear this ensemble. On the plus side, the soloists were all well attuned to the hall and there were none of the audibility problems that occurred in Saturday's performance of Britten's War Requiem [see my review]. 

The results were absorbing, at times thrilling and undoubtedly moving, but let us not kid ourselves, what we heard was probably a world away from anything Bach might have expected. But Bach's music is able to transcend the limitations and strictures of any particular performance.

Remembering Denys Darlow at this year's Tilford Bach Festival

Denys Darlow

This week we have already marked the centenary of the horn player Dennis Brain, and now comes another remarkable centenarian.

For concert goers of a certain age, the name Denys Darlow (1921-2015) is inextricably linked with the music of Bach and of Handel, and with the two festivals that he founded, the Tilford Bach Festival (founded 1952) and the London Handel Festival (founded in 1978). He was an inspirational figure in the early music revival in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as being Professor of Organ, Theory, Aural and History at the Royal College of Music for 30 years. He commissioned numerous composers, composed a number of works himself and championed the lesser known works of Bach and Handel long before it became fashionable to do so.

This year is his centenary and the Tilford Bach Festival, which takes place on 12 and 13 June 2021, will include a special tribute to Darlow. Students from the Royal College of Music, directed from the harpsichord by Tolga Un, will be joined by soprano Joanne Lunn at 12 noon on Saturday, 12 June for a performance of Darlow's final composition, High Hills, which he wrote for Joanne Lunn and the London Handel Players in 2005.

On the Saturday evening, Adrian Butterfield (current artistic director of the festival) directs a Bach programme from the violin, featuring the London Handel Players in two Brandenburg Concerto related cantatas and the Kyrie and Gloria of the B minor Mass, with singers from the Royal College of Music (supported by the Josephine Baker Trust). Cantata BWV 52 Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht features the opening sinfonia which comes from Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, and Cantata BWV 174 Ich liebe den Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte takes a movement from Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 as its opening sinfonia, but with added instrumental parts. Then on Sunday afternoon there is a performance of all six Brandenburg Concertos performed by the London Handel Players directed by Adrian Butterfield. Not coincidentally, this year is the 300th anniversary of the creation of the Brandenburg Concertos.

The festival programme (with details about reserving tickets) is available as an online flipbook.