By Bryant Manning, Chicago Sun-Times
April 2, 2008
While the area's countless new music ensembles remind us that classical music is indeed still young, Music of the Baroque continues to make 18th century repertoire sound as youthful as ever. Now in its 36th season, the group has achieved a sustained success under music director Jane Glover, who in six years at the helm, has brought on board her early music expertise along with a flair for modern and neglected works. Add in a chorus and orchestra assembled from the area's finest musicians -- and the result is yet another local cultural jewel.
There was something especially alluring about Glover's first performance with MOB in Bach's prodigious "St. Matthew Passion," BWV 244, which received a rousing performance Monday night at the Harris Theater. A few surprises, were announced beforehand: Technical glitches nixed supertitles, and understudies Kimberly McCord and William Sharp replaced soprano Christine Brandes and baritone-bass Sanford Sylvan, who were ill. They filled in admirably.
Yet when the choir and the Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus roared forth in the opening chorus, the occasion resumed without a hitch. On the pulpit, Glasgow-born tenor Paul Agnew sermonized brilliantly as the evangelist with a voice like honey, sweet but thick with substance. It's inconceivable to imagine a dull character in this three-hour-plus work, and thankfully Agnew captivated in every single one of his 60-some recitatives.
Baritone Christopheren Nomura sang the part of Jesus as if wayward souls depended on it. If there's a blueprint for the portrayal of God's son in the leading hours to his crucifixion, Nomura's bold and courageous enactment ought to be it.
Mezzo Catherine Wyn-Rogers, long familiar on the world's top opera stages, supplied her own heartfelt drama in the night's most moving aria ("Erbarme dich, mein Gott") with the help of a plaintive solo from concertmaster Robert Waters. The orchestra's modern instruments delivered a tempered and smooth sound; tenor Nicholas Phan really played up the operatic energy in his exceptional MOB debut.
The Final Chorus, with its familiar kernels often harvested to elevate movie soundtracks, was stamped with grandeur and volume. Only seismic applause could've brought this celestial night back to reality, and did it ever.