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.

This was a performance that had period manners, but much about it utilised modern norms. Maasaki Suzuki is a highly active conductor, directing everything including the recitatives without even a nod to the convention that Bach would simply have directed from the keyboard and given performers a greater element of freedom. The organ continuo was discreet, nothing like the full organ Bach would have used, and of course we used women and countertenors rather than boys. 

Bach: St John Passion – Carolyn Sampson, Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Mark Allen)

The opening chorus was strong and highly active, the instruments really digging deep and a very intent chorus creating a distinctive sound. This was the sound world of both large-scale choruses that bookend the work. Suzuki’s speeds here were brisk, giving the choruses great impetus, by contrast the narration from the Evangelist, Benjamin Bruns had a steadiness too it. As I have said, Suzuki conducted the recitatives, which perhaps inhibited the sense of freedom. Bruns has quite a big voice, a lyric tenor, he is moving into the Wagnerian repertoire with Erik in The Flying Dutchman and a planned role debut as Parsifal. He also has a very mellifluous voice, with an enviable freedom at the top. This Evangelist was strong toned but compelling and he coloured his words finely, albeit with a steadiness of delivery. In part two, Bruns was not frightened of bringing the full force of his voice to the service of the drama

Christian Immler made a sober, trenchant Christus, declaiming with a confidence which masked that fact that occasionally bass arias seemed to slip rather low for him at this pitch. Immler’s account of the first bass aria, ‘Betrachte, meine Seel’, mit ängstlichem Vergnügen’ was very moving, the way he combined attention to the words with a sense of inwardness. By contrast, ‘Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen’ with chorus, was deliberately strenuous and ‘Mein teurer Heiland, laß dich fragen’ combined shapely phrasing with great urgency of tone.

Carolyn Sampson brought great bubbly joy to her first aria, ‘Ich folge dir gleichfalls mit freudigen Schritten’, whilst ‘Zerfließe, mein Herze, in Fluten der Zähren’ was intimate and tender with a fabulous accompanying trio from flute, violin and cello. Alexander Chance’s first solo, ‘Von den Stricken meiner Sünden’, was very urgent and wonderfully definite, with fabulous oboe playing. His second aria, ‘Es ist vollbracht’ featured Chance’s lovely, melancholy tone and superb line, creating a highly expressive yet never fussy performance. Chance gave it a directness which worked well in this hall. Tenor Shimon Yoshida made ‘Ach, mein Sinn’ urgent. He has a fine lyric tenor, but in this aria did not seem entirely comfortable with Suzuki’s urgent tempo and the aria felt a bit choppy. His second aria, ‘Erwäge, wie sein blutgefärbter Rücken’ however, featured a lovely floated line, as did his final arioso.

Bach: St John Passion – Benjamin Bruns, Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan at BBC Proms Note the contrabass bassoon behind Bruns (Photo: BBC/ Mark Allen)

We had a fierce and forceful, almost bad-tempered Pilate from Yusuke
Watanabe (in the choir), the confrontation between him and Immler’s
Christus being highly dramatic and vivid without becoming operatic. Chorales were often brisk, whilst the Turbae were wonderfully vivid and part of the drama.

Ultimately this was Maasaki Suzuki’s evening as he brought a lifetime’s experience to shaping and directing the music of Bach.

The Proms is available on BBC Sounds for 30 days.