By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
The Los Angeles News Group

Los Angeles Master Chorale; Grant Gershon, conductor
January 31 at Walt Disney Concert Hall
Bach: St. Matthew Passion
Next performance: Tonight at 7 p.m..
Information: www.lamc.org

In an article in Performances Magazine (which acts as the program for events at Walt Disney Concert Hall and other venues), Thomas May wrote that a masterpiece “is a work of art that contains too many levels to be exhausted in a single encounter.” The Los Angeles Master Chorale’s splendid, gripping performance of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, heard Saturday afternoon in Disney Hall, exemplified that description.

Although the performance was not “staged,” the way Aristic Director Grant Gershon laid out his forces lent a theatrical quality to the afternoon. In front were tenor Jon Lee Keenan, who sang radiantly as the Evangelist (aka the narrator), and bass Chung Uk Lee, who subtly captured the many emotional facets of Jesus.

The 40 Master Chorale singers were divided into two choirs; Musica Angelica, the period-instrument ensemble with about the same numbers, was also split in half. Although everyone was on the Disney Hall stage, the division of forces was clearly evident and the split was reinforced because the orchestra and choir on each side of the dividing line aligned with the choruses and soloists. On the top riser were 26 members of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, who lent a pure, angelic top sound to the opening and closing choruses of the work’s first half.

The 21 other soloists, who sing the characters that are part of the Biblical drama, came from the Master Chorale’s forces. All simply stepped out from the chorus to sing their solo lines. However, even here Gershon had a theatrical touch as to where the soloists stood; they eventually covered the entire width of the horseshoe shape of the chorus. Gershon led a glorious, fast-paced performance that captured all of the work’s drama expertly.

Without in any slighting Keenan’s searing performance as the narrator, the Chorale was the star of the show, both in the 12 chorales and their other accompanying parts. Five of those chorales are variations on what we now know as the Passion Chorale (most familiarly known as the tune for the hymn O Sacred Head, Now Wounded). The Master Chorale’s singing in those five chorales exquisitely made clear the subtle harmonic and key changes that Bach wrote to differentiate them.

At three hours, the St. Matthew Passion is an endurance contest for performers and audience alike, but when done well it’s worth the effort and this performance was everything one could want.
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(c) Copyright 2015, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.