St. Matthew’s Passion – Usher Hall

The second Passion of the 2024 Edinburgh International Festival, following on immediately from the opening night Concert, Osvaldo Gilijov’s extraordinaryLa Pasio Segun San Marcos,a reinterpretation of Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion from 2000.

However, tonight too is a reworking of Bach’s original masterpiece. The young Felix Mendelssohn transformed Johann Sebastian Bach’s majestic St Matthew Passion for modern orchestra. We hear his (rarely performed) groundbreaking arrangement from Leipzig 1841. Arguably this changed the course of music history, and without it the great Bach revival of the 19^th Century might never have happened.

There would surely have been an argument to host a third Passion, the original, using baroque instruments, which would sound very different again. A holy triptych, if you like, but maybe I’m just being greedy!

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra are on top form and are joined by the equally fantastic sounding Edinburgh Festival Chorus accompanied by the RSNO Youth Chorus, all led under the assured baton of Ryan Wigglesworth.

Ed Lyon‘s Evangelist is ubiquitous and moody, fervent, sensitive, the glue that holds the production together. Neal Davies’s Jesus is perfectly sung, and emotional, you can hear the weariness in his delivery, his voice intentionally cracking at times. The female voices are similarly strong across the board. The only criticism here is that there might have been a bit more zip in the story telling, a jumping up, an anger in the ranks. After all we are witnessing some dramatic events. The chorus and soloists never quite get to the level of yesterday’s passion performance.

The Usher Hall’s translated subtitles system is excellent, but there is always room for improvement, whether that be in the staging or in other interactive methods or a combination of both.

Considering this years’ tagline, Rituals that unite us, it is concerning to see the shrinking demographic for classical music concerts like this. There are no young people here! It’s never been more important to consider new ways to integrate the old and the new, embrace new technologies, and make this wonderful music appealing to a wider, and younger, audience.    

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 4th August 2024

North West End UK Rating:

Running time – 2 hr 10mins (with interval)