You can generally count on a New York spring to produce three or four prominent performances of Bach Passions. This year the activity is minimal.
The “St. John Passion” appears just barely, with Julian Wachner conducting the Choir and Baroque Orchestra of Trinity Wall Street next week as part of the Good Friday service at Trinity Church, complete with sermon and veneration of the cross. And the “St. Matthew” had its lone performance on Thursday evening: happily, a good one, with John Scott conducting the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys and Concert Royal at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue.
The St. Thomas Choir has had a rich experience of the “St. Matthew Passion” recently, having also participated in the Berlin Philharmonic’s staging of the work at the Park Avenue Armory in October. But with or without that added immersion, the group was sure to excel.
It is too easy to take this choir for granted, so fine are its performances year after year. Since 2004, these have been meticulously prepared by Mr. Scott, the church’s organist and director of music, right down to the seldom-noted commas in chorale texts, noted here without fussiness. The group can rise to a mighty clamor in crowd scenes, but its most remarkable effort on Thursday came in the chorale immediately following the death of Jesus: hushed, sensitive and beautiful.
A solid cast of vocal soloists was led by the tenor Rufus Müller, as the Evangelist, and the bass-baritone Douglas Williams, as Jesus. Mr. Williams unleashed the full power of his clear and incisive tone in a role more often played for warmth and humanity, and he made the portrayal work superbly on his own terms.
Mr. Müller has made a brilliant specialty of the Evangelist roles in both Bach Passions, internalizing them completely and singing them from memory. This performance met his usual high standards, though he uncharacteristically showed momentary signs of tiring toward, hardly a disgrace in a role that is sorely taxing even when not performed with such intensity.
Jesse Blumberg — singing the bass arias, though more baritone than bass — made up in expressiveness what he may have lacked in low-lying heft. His rendition of the work’s glorious final aria, “Mache dich, mein Herze, rein” (“Make thyself clean, my heart”), was simply gorgeous.
Each of the other soloists — Sherezade Panthaki, soprano; Jay Carter, countertenor; and Lawrence Jones, tenor — had moments of distinction. Concert Royal played well, with a few bumps along the way and a few transcendent moments.
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