By Greg Stepanich
It’s true that the Miami-based concert choir Seraphic Fire is a national organization that draws many of its singing members, as well as the personnel for its Firebird Chamber Orchestra, from across the country.
But it is also nevertheless true that on Saturday night in a church in Fort Lauderdale, a large audience saw a South Florida musical organization that was able to perform a compelling, moving reading of the St. John Passion of J.S. Bach with thorough expertise and polish. And that is cause for celebration.
Patrick Dupré Quigley’s remarkable group has tackled Bach numerous times, from a program featuring all six of the composer’s motets to the current Brandenburg Concerto project, and the B minor Mass (which is returning for the choir’s 10th season next year). The St. John Passion, in some ways trickier than any of those because of the wide variety of things the chorus is asked to do, establishes another important landmark for local music-making, one that Seraphic Fire brought off beautifully in its concert at All Saints Episcopal.
Led by a strong performance by tenor Bryon Grohman as the Evangelist, Quigley led a 12-person choir and 12-person orchestra through a lively and forceful performance of the Passion in which tempos were relatively swift, and the characterizations by the singers were persuasive and well-sung.
Grohman has a light, keening tenor sound that is very well-suited for music of the German Baroque; in addition to his clarity of diction he also underlined the text, adding a sense of sharp tension to the word “schrieen” when it occurred in passages such as Sie schrieen aber (They cried out).
Baritone Paul Max Tipton made a fine Jesus, with a plushly carpeted baritone and a sense of regal resignation, and James Bass was equally fine as Pilate, singing with sober precision, and adding a calm beauty to his solo work in Eilt, ihr angefocht’nen Seelen.
Other lovely work came from the reliable countertenor Reggie Mobley, who sang Von der Stricken with great tenderness, and from soprano Kathryn Mueller in her Ich folge der gleichfalls. Mueller had some difficulty, volume-wise, in the first moments with this treacherous aria’s high-flying motif, but by the end had captured the sense of happiness and joyful service that fills this song.
Tenor Brad Diamond was appropriately anguished with his Ach, mein Sinn, singing with a near-manic approach, and mezzo Misty Bermudez gave a masterful, somber-colored rendition of Es is vollbracht. Tenor Dann Coakwell (Erwäge, wie sein blutgefärbter Rücken) and soprano Nacole Palmer (Zerfleiße, mein Herze) also sang their demanding arias ably.
The most engaging singing came from baritone Charles Wesley Evans, whose silky baritone moved beautifully through Betrachte, meine Seel’ to its closing Unterlauß auf Ihn. But it was his second aria, Mein teurer Heiland, that was the peak of the solo work Saturday night, his voice floating radiantly above the chorus quietly entering with Jesu, der du warest tot, and ending with a superb sense of surprised-by-joy in his final Ja!
The choir itself was wonderful, singing each of the multiple chorales with a glossy sheen and crisp ensemble (especially the repeated breaks after the first two notes throughout), and adding tremendous excitement to the proceedings in its roles as the crowd, particularly in the rising chromaticism of Wäre dieser nicht ein Übeltäter, and the babbling polyphony of the calls for crucifixion (Weg, weg mit dem).
The orchestra was every bit as good, with excellent instrumental work from every player, especially bassoonist Anthony Ancura, cellist Brian Howard (in Es ist vollbracht) and oboist Jeremy Kesselman, whose English horn work on Zerfließe, mein Herze was marvelous. Quigley and his forces brought the whole thing home with a rapturous Ruht wohl, which got increasingly gorgeous with each repetition.
Not everything was perfect in this performance, but as a whole it stands with some of this group’s finest work, primarily because the listener could enjoy the music at a level of accomplishment that allowed him or her to appreciate the magnificence of Bach’s conception, his astonishing harmonic and melodic daring, his brilliance at setting text and making it come truly alive.
Lovers of the Baroque, of Bach, and of his Passion music, should make a point of attending the repeat performances of this work tonight in Miami or tomorrow afternoon in Fort Lauderdale. It is, again, a point of real cultural pride that a challenging masterwork of Western culture such as the St. John Passion can be performed so well, so powerfully, by a group that calls South Florida home.
Seraphic Fire performs the St. John Passion tonight at 8 at Trinity Cathedral in Miami, and at 4 p.m. Sunday at All Saints Episcopal in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets range from $50 to $60, depending on the venue. Call 305-285-9060 or visit www.seraphicfire.org.