Music Reviews : Pro Musica Keeps Passion in ‘St. Matthew’

Conductor Edward Low and the Pasadena Pro Musica delivered a dramatic and persuasive account of Bach’s “Passion According to St. Matthew” Sunday afternoon in the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena.

Credit Low for enforcing intelligent tempos and a honed, weighty choral sound, even if his beat looked occasionally hard to follow.

He also had the bright idea of using a divided orchestra to play in different styles. Well, why not? Bach utilized both an antique and a then-modern style in the work.

Thus violinist David Stenske, at the head of Orchestra One, used rich vibrato and long phrasing in the obligato part of “Erbarme dich, mein Gott,” sung sweetly by mezzo Wendy Knudsen.

But violinist Marion Froelich, leading Orchestra Two, accompanied her with minimal vibrato and short bowings in “Konnen Tranen meiner Wangen,” one of the emotional high points of the program.

The changes in timbre kept the long performance (four hours, including an hour dinner break) from fatiguing the ear. It also made Bach’s scoring even more vivid. But credit too, splendid solos by oboist Larry Timm and gamba player Carol Herman, among other instrumentalists.

Mallory Walker, familiar from character roles in recent Los Angeles Music Center Opera productions, made an ardent and bright--though sometimes rushed and histrionic--Evangelist.

Stephen Grimm sang the role of Jesus with mellifluous resignation. It could bear more charismatic authority. Lori Stinson sang the soprano solos with dark and weighty tone.

This was by no means an ideal performance of the work. Other soloists were weak, most chorus members taking minor character parts were inadequate, almost everyone needed coaching in German prosody and diction. Opportunities to emphasize the text dramatically often were squandered.

But somehow, by the end, all the deficiencies yielded to the dramatic conviction and power of the performance.