Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Bach’s B Minor Mass

Usher Hall - 12/10/23

Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Richard Egarr, conductor

SCO Chorus - Gregory Batsleer, chorus director

Soloists - Rowan Pierce, soprano | Mhairi Lawson, soprano | Helen Charlston, mezzo soprano | James Gilchrist, tenor | Roderick Williams, baritone

In the photograph at the front of this review, conductor Richard Egarr’s t-shirt features a keyboard with the slogan ‘music is life,’ a motto which is also appropriate for J S Bach, whose Mass in B-minor, which the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the SCO Chorus play tonight, is the culmination of his life’s work. Completed in 1749, a year before Bach’s death, the work contains music from around thirty years, re-purposed, as was the common practice for composers then, to fit the 100-plus minute setting of the full Latin Mass.  Lutherans regularly sang portions of the Latin mass, especially the Kyrie and Gloria, known as the Missa Brevis, as well as cantatas and chorales in German, but it's unlikely that this portmanteau work was ever intended to be played as a whole, and Bach himself never heard it complete. David Kettle, in his excellent programme note here, provides the full story of the B Minor Mass's composition.

Bach wrote copiously throughout his life. The narrator of James Runcie’s novel ‘The Great Passion,' Bach’s pupil during his early years in Leipzig, describes how his teacher composed a new cantata every week for the church service – not in solitary contemplation, but working on his music amid a boisterous family life, while undertaking the choral and administrative duties which kept them all fed and clothed. This music, springing from undoubted religious faith, is nevertheless firmly embedded in the actualities of everyday life.

We've become used over the last half century to one-voice-per-part baroque music. Egarr knows all about historical practice, but tonight chooses a different approach. In using a large chamber orchestra of 35 players and a 55 strong choir, he can celebrate the work's formidable architecture in its use of symmetry and contrast. Although the history of its composition might make us fear a disunified product, in fact its confining structure gives it form and clarity.

The Kyrie is a three-part invocation (in Greek not Latin) in which two ‘Kyrie Eleison’ (Lord have mercy) are linked by one ‘Christe Eleison’ (Christ have mercy).  The SCO Chorus sets a strong deliberate pace in the first Kyrie with the rich sound of their five part fugue accompanied by woodwind and strings; then sopranos, Rowan Pierce and Mhairi Lawson, with fewer strings, pipe organ and Egarr on harpsichord present a contrasting small-scale ‘Christe,’ with Pierce’s voice in the upper part soaring effortlessly.  Then there’s another fugal chorus, this time, more sombre and austere.

Three trumpets and timpani announce the start of the ‘Gloria’.  It and the ‘Credo’ the two longest sections of the mass sit either side of the interval in tonight’s performance.  The ‘Gloria’ alternates choruses with three solo arias, and in the centre an operatic duet for tenor and soprano, sung by James Gilchrist and Rowan Pierce.  With Andre Cebrian, later joined by Marta Gomez, standing to play a melting flute obbligato, the singers relish the music, listening to the orchestra and communicating well with each other. Gilchrist, an experienced Evangelist in the Matthew Passion, shows the same concern for making the Latin words count as he does in Bach’s German music.  Mhairi Lawson’s solo is accompanied by Stephanie Gonley in a lilting pastoral tune, while mezzo, Helen Charlston, sings her first aria in triple time, with an oboe d’amore, the longer and one third lower sibling of the oboe, played by Katherine Bryer.  These are gentle pieces, but Roderick Williams, singing for the first time shortly before the interval, has a more declamatory aria accompanied by horn and bassoons. This is the prelude for the fireworks of the conclusion of the ‘Gloria,’ its exuberance mirroring the opening of the section. 

With no applause during the performance, the sizeable audience are ready with cheers and enthusiastic applause at the interval.  It may be the best audience the SCO have had for a choral work since the pandemic, and interestingly I hear several experienced concert-goers say they have never heard the work before. 

After the interval, the five soloists stand in front of the orchestra and, led off by James Gilchrist, sing the first section of the ‘Credo,’ initially a capella, then accompanied by solo violin and cellos. It’s a lovely touch which is repeated at the end of the section. The Credo is a difficult part of the mass to set.  It starts and ends with firm statements of belief, with at its centre the briefly described drama of the crucifixion and resurrection.  But it also contains wordy passages which reveal the Nicene Creed’s ancient origins, written by a committee to give precise definition to Christian doctrine.  A challenge for a composer a bit like setting Clause Four to music! Bach gets round this by giving the most tedious bits the most inspiring music: Rowan Pierce and Helen Charlston blend their voices beautifully in a long list of the attributes of God, while Roderick Williams has one of the best solos of the night announcing his adherence to the Trinity and the Holy Catholic Church.  He sings ‘Et in Spiritu Santo’ standing at the end of the back row of the orchestra, close to the oboe d’amore players and the bassoons, which accompany his expressive baritone.

The Chorus, impeccable and vivid throughout their extensive performance tonight, excel themselves in the ‘Crucifixus’ and ‘In Resurrexit’.  Firstly, with the orchestra dominated by lower strings and low notes on the organ, the choir maintains a heavy rhythm as the volume gradually increases and the pace slows, and with the words describing Christ’s burial, the notes seems to descend to the depths. Then the music leaps joyfully upwards as the resurrection is announced with woodwinds and brass, high voices and drums. It’s playing and singing of the highest quality, which is a tribute to Egarr’s conducting, and Chorus Director, Gregory Batsleer’s preparation.

The celebratory music of the ‘Sanctus’ and ‘Osanna’ give way to the more reflective ‘Agnus Dei’ (Lamb of God). This begins with a mezzo aria, often sung by a counter-tenor in period performances, though Charlston’s distinctive timbre, secure in its lower notes and reaching up in quiet reassurance at the end, seems an entirely perfect fit for the music. The final chorus begins softly before developing into a fugue with the trumpet echoing the rising soprano lines. The final words, “Dona nobis pacem” (Give us peace) are a prayer, but like much of this remarkable work also an important statement of our humanity.

The next SCO concert with music by Mozart and Haydn is the first Thursday matinee on 26th October at 2pm.  It’s good to see that tickets are selling well, though there are still some available.