By Rebecca Schmid<\/p>\n
Peter Sellars\u2019 semi-staging of St. Matthew Passion<\/em> for the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic, officially called a \u201critualization\u201d on the cover of the production\u2019s recently-released DVD, may be one of his most daring enterprises to date. Interestingly though, Bach\u2019s Passion already has a history as a subject of both artistic reverence and unorthodox reinterpretation. When Felix Mendelssohn brought the work back into fashion upon performing it with Berlin\u2019s Singakademie<\/em> in 1829\u2014approximately a century after St. Matthew<\/em>\u2019s Leipzig premiere\u2014he made several cuts to the original score, excluding all solo arias but two. \u201cTo think that it had to be an actor and a Jew to bring back the greatest Christian music for the people,\u201d he reportedly exclaimed to his actor-friend, Eduard Devrient, who helped arrange the performance.<\/p>\n St. Matthew<\/em> is officially a sacred cantata on a libretto by Picander, who set two chapters of the Gospel of Matthew in Luther\u2019s translation, yet its episodic nature alternating arias, recitative, chorales, and choruses has been compared to Greek tragedy. If some scholarly articles are any indication, there may also be less compelling reason to confine the work to a Protestant church than one would think. A 1985 article by Rosalie Atlhol Schellhous in Musical Quarterly<\/em> argues that the Passion is rooted more in a tradition of mysticism than direct Lutheran values, designating the work as a formal meditation or \u201cmental prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n Sellars, in a bonus interview with Rundfunchor Director Simon Halsey, consciously or unconsciously segues right into this discourse by comparing Bach to a \u201ctwelve-step process\u201d that is not just about spiritual but physical transformation. It should be \u201cvividly experiential rather than an intellectual proposition,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re opening it and going inside instead of admiring it as a monument from a distance.\u201d Paradoxically, Sellars\u2019 visual representations only emphasize how skillfully the theatrical and spiritual elements of St. Matthew Passion <\/em>are embedded in the music itself.<\/p>\n The members of the Rundfunkchor admirably learned their parts by heart and were encouraged by Sellars to allow their individual personalities to shine through as they pondered the weight of Bach\u2019s music. Yet their amateurish expressions of Lebensschmerz <\/em>distract from its introspective qualities. Dressed in all-black, they walk around stage in a forlorn state during the opening chorus \u201cKomm, ihr T\u00f6chter.\u201d\u00a0At the center of the stage is a tombstone-shaped block on which the Evangelist will lie with his wrists tied in invisible rope at the end of the piece, the chorus huddled around him. I struggled not to cringe at such touch-feely gestures.<\/p>\n It is of course hard to judge the effect this Passion had live. The production premiered in 2010 at the Salzburg Easter Festival and subsequently the Philharmonie, where it was filmed on the Berlin Philharmonic\u2019s own label. Sellars, as he explains to Halsey, was inspired by the \u201c360\u201d pentagonal shape of Hans Scharoun\u2019s architecture and sought to absorb the audience into the event by scattering singers throughout the hall. The footage is expertly edited and covers the full range of shots from various angles, but often lingers close to the stage. As is often the case in audiovisual documents, the close-ups prove bothersome.<\/p>\n Sellars grants the soloists a great deal of artistic freedom, which leads to some positively operatic performances. Magdalena Ko\u017een\u00e1, incarnating Marry Magdalene, let her hands wander all over the body of the Evangelist (Mark Padmore) during the aria \u201cBu\u00df und Reu,\u201d in which she sings of how sin breaks the heart in two and her desire to anoint Jesus with her tears. Her performance in the second part, in which she accosts the chorus and laments Christ\u2019s fate to the audience, is more moving in its directness. The Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling brings a full, pleasant tone but an unusual amount of vibrato to her arias. Sellars was blessed with what must have been an unexpected naturalist touch given that she was eight-months pregnant when they shot the DVD, which makes it quite dramatic to watch Tilling sing of a traitorous child (\u201ces ist zur Schlange worden\u201d) in \u201cBl\u00fcte nur, du liebes Herz.\u201d<\/p>\n The male roles are inhabited even more convincingly. The smooth baritone and dramatic restraint of Christian Gerhaher in the role of Jesus convey more spiritual depth than any action onstage. Padmore lives up to his reputation as one of today\u2019s most seasoned Evangelists, exuding modern fervor and a sense of pathos that is at times overstated but generally effective. Thomas Quasthoff is moving in the bass parts, easily expressing personal redemption in the final aria \u201cMach dich, mein Herze rein.\u201d Finnish tenor Topi Lehtipuu brings a handsome presence and expressive dramaticism without chewing up the scenery. His dynamic as he kneels pleadingly before the viola da gamba soloist (Hille Perl) in the aria \u201cGeduld, wenn mich falsche Zungen stechen\u201d is straightforward and emotionally immediate, as is his performance alongside oboist Albrecht Mayer in \u201cIch will bei meinem Jesus wachen.\u201d<\/p>\n Sir Simon Rattle, although less known for his forays into early music,\u00a0gives an elegant, authentic account of Bach\u2019s score with the Berlin Philharmonic. While this recording will not rival that of John Elliot Gardiner or other specialists, the transparent timbre that Rattle has (albeit controversially) cultivated as music director of his orchestra serves the Passion well. It is also impressive that he single-handedly conducts the surround-sound staging and the double-choir (which includes boy singers from the Staats- und Domchors Berlin).\u00a0Sellars\u2019 concept places the Philharmonic\u2019s world-class soloists such as Mayer and flutist Emmanuel Pahud into the spotlight they deserve, although I enjoy their playing just as much when they are sitting down.<\/p>\n