Staged reconstruction of Bach’s lost “St. Mark Passion” makes impressive premiere
The Passion story—the events leading up to the death of Jesus, as recounted in the four gospels of the New Testament—is literally the crux of the Christian faith. An early biography of J.S. Bach credited him with five musical settings of these texts, three of which are now lost.
Besides the familiar St. Matthew and St. John Passions, the libretto and other evidence of Bach’s Passion According to St. Mark exist, and have formed the basis for over a dozen recent attempts to reconstruct the work.
The latest of these, by the British musicologist Malcolm Bruno, was unveiled Sunday at Corpus Christi Church in Morningside Heights, in a deeply affecting staged performance by The Sebastians with players from Chatham Baroque, vocal soloists, and actor Joseph Marcell as the Evangelist.
In a sort of double-barreled world premiere, the new version made its bow Friday in Chatham Baroque’s hometown of Pittsburgh, then came to New York two days later—Palm Sunday in the Christian calendar, commemorating Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. Sunday’s New York debut was presented under the auspices of Music Before 1800 whose artistic director, Bill Barclay directed the stage action of this production. An international tour is to follow.
Bach’s St. Mark Passion is believed to have been a “parody” work, meaning the composer compiled it using his pre-existing compositions. That fact sent would-be reconstructors combing through the Bach oeuvre for likely candidates for recycling in a Passion.
Informed speculation centered on the composer’s Funeral Ode, BWV 198, whose unusual instrumentation, arias and choruses map neatly onto the St. Mark libretto by Bach’s frequent collaborator, the poet known as Picander. After that, the enterprise became more and more speculative, until movements—even sometimes by other composers–were incorporated not for any historical reason, but just because they worked in that spot in the piece.
No reconstructor, and certainly not Prof. Bruno in his program essay, has claimed to reproduce the work exactly as Bach introduced it in Leipzig in 1731. But as a musical story-meditation in Bach’s dramatic style and using exclusively Bach’s music, the Bruno version proved highly engaging and theatrically satisfying in its debut.
There being no composed recitatives for the central figure of the Evangelist or choruses for the turba (crowd scenes), Bruno adopted the precedent of having an actor speak the gospel narrative. The happy choice for this production was Marcell, a veteran of London’s West End and Globe Theatre (and of American TV as the butler on Fresh Prince of Bel Air), who brought a touch of West Indian lilt and just the right degree of emotional engagement to his storytelling and the spoken words of Jesus.
The four singers spoke the dialogues of the high priest, Pontius Pilate, Christ’s disciples, and voices in the crowd. Director Barclay and editor Bruno also kept them busy reenacting the Last Supper and other events in rudimentary stage action while singing the contrapuntal SATB choruses, blending voices smoothly in the chorales (hymn arrangements) and performing their individual arias.
Soprano Pascale Beaudin sang the aria “Er kommt” with dramatic urgency, but didn’t sound quite warmed up vocally. That was remedied in her later aria “Welt und Himmel,” which glowed with a kind of Handelian optimism and a smoothly ornamented vocal line, supported by Andrew Fouts’ vigorous violin obbligato.
Bass Jonathan Woody brought a Fischer-Dieskau-style head resonance and diction to the aria “Herr, so du willt” that gave emotional immediacy to its devotional message. Later he intertwined in leisurely melismas with Priscilla Herreid’s creamy-toned oboe d’amore in “Es ist Vollbracht.”
The first alto aria, “Falsche Welt,” seemed to lie awkwardly for countertenor Cody Bowers, who nevertheless put its message over with accusing fire. In contrast, Bowers shone vocally in the soaring lines and long held notes of “Mein Heiland.”
The rich tone of Emi Ferguson’s wood transverse flute complemented tenor James Reese’s sensitive delivery of the beseeching aria “Erbarme dich.” Reese’s piercing diction and taut melismas projected the desolation of “Mein Tröster” through cool solos by Ferguson and Herreid.
The Sebastians and guests, conducted from the harpsichord by music director Jeffrey Grossman, had a scrappy, almost Brechtian sound in the opening chorus, “Geh, Jesu”—not inappropriate to the bitterly grieving Passion text—but smoothed out for the gentler meditations that followed.
Director Bill Barclay’s blocking in the church’s narrow chancel and steps subtly set up the story’s incidents and confrontations. The aria “Mein Heiland,” for example, gained emotional resonance when singer Bowers addressed it directly to the seated figure of actor Marcell as Jesus.
Barclay’s words of welcome before the performance included a mini-sermon linking the Passion story to a perceived injustice in current headlines, particularly as regarded immigrants and students at nearby Columbia University. The audience seemed in equal parts receptive to the message and puzzled at its intrusion in this concert.
But it was Bach’s music, artfully arranged for dramatic and musical effect by editor Bruno and vividly played and sung by the afternoon’s artists, that left the most indelible impression of the day.
Music Before 1800 closes its 2024-2025 season with Juilliard 415, directed by Robert Mealy, in “Corelli in Chiquitos,” a program of music that was performed in the missions of Bolivia and Peru during the mid-18th century, 4 p.m. May 18. mb1800.org
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