The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and vocal ensemble I Fagiolini's performance of Bach's St John Passion began with the opening words of St John's Gospel, read by the actor Stephen Dillane. Afterwards, the churning string lines of Bach's opening chorus sounded like Bach's evocation of the darkness into which Jesus's light was cast. It was the first of many revelations in this performance, the climax of a week-long investigation by the singers and players into the world of the John Passion.
Instead of using a conductor, tenor Mark Padmore, who sang the Evangelist, was nominally the director, but in reality this was a collaborative performance. Instead of separating the solo singers from the chorus, Padmore and bass Peter Harvey, as Christus, joined in with the chorales that perforate the piece. It was an organic approach that turned Bach's music into a communal experience.
The OAE players were magnificent - especially the continuo group of cellist David Watkin, bassoonist Andrew Watts and organist Laurence Cummings - and the singing of I Fagiolini was outstanding, intensely dramatic and affecting. However, Padmore's performance was the centrepiece, and his Evangelist unfolded the Passion story with inexorable power. There were moments of word painting in his interpretation that were shockingly vivid, such as the lamenting lines that depicted Peter's tears after denying Christ.
The performance ended with a 16th-century funeral motet by Jacob Handl Gallus, which would have been sung in Bach's day after the final chorus of the Passion. The aching archaism of this music was a moving glimpse of how the John Passion was connected to the everyday liturgy of Bach's church. But the motto for the performance was provided by TS Eliot, in his poem Ash Wednesday, which Dillane read between the two parts: "May the judgment not be too heavy upon us", a fitting encapsulation of an interpretation in which the performers and audience were invited to share anew the burden and transcendence of the Passion story.
· At Queen Elizabeth Hall, London SE1, on Thursday. Box office: 0870 401 8181. Then touring.
