Once almost synonymous with his Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki has more recently been broadening his reach in terms of repertoire – Stravinsky, Mahler and even Fauré are now on his résumé – and the ensembles he works with. This performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, its six cantatas played over two evenings together with two extra choral works, brought him together with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. What would the conductor who has established the BCJ as a distinctively temperate, even understated outfit make of the OAE’s more vigorous style?
A lot, it turns out. Some of Suzuki’s recent UK appearances have brought us refined but very serious Bach; this, however, was all joy. The opening five-note phrase on the timpani set the tone, establishing a sense of swing that permeated the whole first chorus – and the rest of the evening. Here were long phrases full of impetus and slow-burning energy, propelling the music onwards so that no single movement felt a note too long.
Suzuki left the continuo keyboard playing to two OAE musicians (on harpsichord and chamber organ) and conducted in detail throughout. He even directed the recitatives, which might have seemed like micromanagement, but, given that several of those recitatives are relatively richly scored, it worked, this time; each player’s expressiveness gained greater focus. There was some outstanding playing, particularly from the trumpeter David Blackadder. The second cantata, depicting the shepherds on the hillside, threw the spotlight on an especially mellifluous quartet of baroque oboes – two of them oboes da caccia, curved in a crescent and looking like something you could string and shoot an arrow from.
In this first concert we heard the first three cantatas plus, between Nos 2 and 3, the motet Singet dem Herrn. Given that Bach wrote the six cantatas of the oratorio to be performed singly on six days during the Christmas period, starting on Christmas Day and ending on Epiphany, there was nothing really inauthentic about breaking it up and adding extra music – and it was good to hear the motet given such a breezy yet shapely performance by the 16 singers of the Choir of the Enlightenment, divided into two nimble choirs of eight.
The four soloists for the Christmas Oratorio were otherwise part of the choir, walking out to the front for their recitatives and arias. Jeremy Budd’s focused tenor made light work of the Evangelist’s recitatives, and in the tenor and flute duet aria Frohe Hirten he sounded very nearly as nimble as the flautist Lisa Beznosiuk. Robin Blaze – Suzuki’s favourite countertenor – held the spotlight brightly in several arias, including a swift performance of the lullaby Schlafe, mein Liebster that suggested Suzuki thinks babies don’t sleep if rocked half-heartedly. Ashley Riches was the fluent, smooth baritone soloist, and the soprano was Anna Dennis, whose full yet soft-edged, chiffon-textured sound made one wish Bach had given her more to sing.
