Not so long ago, performances of Bach's Passions using authentic forces were unusual. Now they are the rule rather than the exception - so much so that a professional performance of the St Matthew Passion on modern instruments, such as this one by the Philharmonia, is almost an event in itself.
This was the penultimate concert of the Bach series presided over by Andras Schiff, and his second as conductor rather than keyboard soloist. Though his forces were unfashionably modern, their style of performance nodded towards "authentic" practices, with light bow strokes and sparing use of vibrato from the strings.
Schiff kept the tempos generally brisk, but at times the music could still be stolid, the phrasing directionless. For all his efforts - and his movements were expansive to the point of flamboyance - something was not quite getting across, and a handful of ragged entries from both chorus and orchestra suggested that he doesn't yet have the authority as a conductor that he has as pianist.
The high points of the evening all stemmed from the soloists. As the Evangelist, the German tenor Peter Schreier sang the whole work (more than three hours long) without a score, assuming the role of storyteller as if taking the audience into his confidence. Unsurprisingly for a singer who made his stage debut more than 40 years ago, Schreier can no longer sing the role as beautifully as he once did, but his compelling, often pictorial, delivery more than made up for one or two moments of struggle. There was no doubting the bitterness of the gall given to Jesus on the cross, or the mocking sound of the cockerel as it crowed after Peter's denial.
Robert Holl, who has been singing Hans Sachs at Bayreuth for the past few summers, brought power to the role of Jesus with his substantial bass. This role is often sung rather politely, but there was nothing meek in Holl's interpretation.
The bass arias sung by Thomas Quasthoff, mellifluous and superbly direct, were another of the evening's highlights, and the velvet-toned mezzo Monica Groop got better and better as the performance went on.
But even though Schiff dedicated the concert to the legendary Otto Klemperer, who made several Bach recordings with this orchestra, on this occasion it was the soloists rather than the conductor who made the performance memorable.
