Johannespassion

This week has been fairly quiet so far after a very busy last week, filled with rehearsals of all sorts and and my first performance of the St. John Passion on Saturday.  Here are a few pictures taken during the rehearsals.

 Jan Caals as the Evangelist

my point of view of the continuo cellist 

soprano Liesbeth Devos (with whom I sang Masetto in Don Giovanni before) reviewing her score

afternoon recitativo rehearsal with conductor Paul Dinneweth and "arias" baritone Joris Derder

soloist's eye view of the conductor

portatif organist

view of the 1st choir

beautiful roses as a congratulations gift after the performance

It was really a wonderful experience to sing the "Christus" role for the first time.  To explain, unlike other oratorio works like the Messiah with four soloist voices, or the Brahms Requiem with two (baritone and soprano) the Passions use at least six main soloists.  There are two tenor voices: one plays the "Evangelist" and sings almost entirely recitatives, telling the story of Jesus betrayal, capture, trial, torture, crucifixion and death.  (I don't know quite how many times he sings the phrase, "Jesus said unto him…" but one hears it a lot.)  As well there is another solo tenor who sings arias, longer reflections, usually settings of sacred poetry, not specifically bible verses.  There is a single soprano, and a single alto/mezzo/counter-tenor, who each sing arias as well, and there are two bass/baritone soloists.  One does the recitative roles of Pilate, Peter and so forth, and sings the bass arias.  These I performed several years ago, but the other low male voice sings the recitative role of Jesus, and this is what I did this time.

As the character of Jesus utters his last words "Es ist vollbracht / It is accomplished" and dies about three-quarters of the way through the work, there are still many arias and choruses that come afterwards, and it is really very pleasant to sit there after your work is over and just listen to the beautiful things that your colleagues are doing.

I cannot quite describe how deeply affecting the Bach Passions are textually, spiritually and musically… I had the same feeling of descending into a deep emotional place two years ago when I sang three performances of the St. Matthew Passions in quick succession, and as then, this time after I came home, I was tired but not at all sleepy.  It really can be one of the most moving things to experience, if you get a good word-for-word translation, have a sensitive conductor and good musicians, and you really pay attention.  I highly recommend it; the Messiah is moving in a different way: for me it is much more uplifting and exuberant; after all it includes all of the Christmas parts of the Jesus story, as well as the Resurrection.  The Passions mention the redemptive promise of Jesus' sacrifice, but leave us at the moment when Jesus has been placed in his grave and we are left without him to find our way home.  Here is a video clip of part of the second-to-last chorus, which is to the text:

Ruht wohl, ihr heiligen Gebeine,
Rest in peace, you sacred limbs,Die ich nun weiter nicht beweine,
I shall weep for you no more,Ruht wohl und bringt auch mich zur Ruh!
rest in peace, and bring me also to rest.Das Grab, so euch bestimmet ist
The grave that is allotted to youUnd ferner keine Not umschließt,
and contains no further suffering,Macht mir den Himmel auf und schließt die Hölle zu.
opens heaven for me and shuts off hell.

*        *        *

Friday evening while I was at my generale rehearsal Maggie took Duncan off to the bus to Mont Blanc, where he will be skiing all week.  He is well-prepared with good clothes and I think they expect good weather.  So far we have received a couple of SMSs from the parental telegraph and everything seems to be going well.  He took along our old point-and-shoot camera so no doubt there will be some interesting photos to look at when he gets back.

On Sunday the three of us not skiing in France went to church in the morning, and after the congregational meeting we came home for lunch.  Maggie and I had an opportunity to go for a walk later on in the afternoon and explored some of the more sauvage areas of the commune.  I have posted before about how there are ruined houses that have been left to fall down and go wild, and these are home to various kinds of animal and bird life.  One house has a corral for a horse; we met the owner and had a chance to spend time with the horse a couple of weeks ago, and were going to take him some carrots to munch on.  "Fatale" is the horse's name, but he must have been out for a ride, because the corral was empty of horses… but there was a fox watching us intently.  There are many foxes in this part of Belgium; I have spotted many along the railway tracks at twilight but never in the late afternoon.  Monsieur Renard ran quickly away when we started to approach...

the ruined "Villa Mathias" from 1905 

 Maggie having a look around

another ruined villa now used as a songbird refuge

It's nice to have such greenery and quiet so close to our home, which also has convenient access to the bus and train.  I must really try, now that the weather is getting nicer, to walk more in the forest.

This week's peace and quiet will quickly end as I have many rehearsals and performances all in a row, beginning with a long day of rehearsing on Thursday for the St. Matthew Passion.  In this one, Joris Derder and I change places: he will sing the Christus, and I will do the arias.  So the schedule looks like this:

march 26 rehearsal morning and evening for matthaus passion in Lier, near Antwerp

march 27 tune-up and performance Faure Requiem and Tucapsky The Sacrifice in Concertgebouw Brugge

march 28 performance johannes passion in Sint-Carolus Borromeuskerk Antwerp

march 29 performance matthaus passion in Lier, near Antwerp

(30th and 31st off)

april 1 performance matthaus passion in Lier, near Antwerp

As well Duncan will return from his ski trip on Saturday; he has the Palm Sunday pageant to act in, and he had requested some more funny lines from the pageant author (a bit of a ham, that boy, I can't imagine) so I will have to run the new lines with him on Saturday night, or someone in the family will have to.  Malcolm also has his orchestra performances this weekend, the first one of which I think I will have to miss, but I should be able to get to see the second one.  This is his first year in the orchestral ensemble and he seems very motivated to play well, so as to not let down his fellow musicians, so there has been a new dedication to practice, which is good to see.

What else to report?  We are not going anywhere expensive or exotic for the Easter holiday; I am leaving for Canada for three-and-a-bit weeks near the end of it, so we will spend as much time together that two weeks prior to my departure as we can.  Our friends Bryan and Kiana have a nice big country house that they are leaving for their holidays away, so I think we will be house-sitting, and dog, and cat, and chicken-sitting as well.  More to come on that later.