I rejoined Gloucester Choral Society to perform Bach’s St John Passion, after thinking carefully about the amount of time and travel involved. I shall never regret doing this, because of the significance that is now attached to it. By concert day (March 14th) concerts were beginning to be cancelled for fear of spreading coronavirus, but this one survived. A couple of days later the curtain was rung down on all performing arts and at the time of writing I’ve lost three concerts, a choral workshop, a Cathedral weekend and numerous church services. In retrospect the Bach is likely to seem a particularly poignant event.
I last sang this work only three years ago but in English, so had to concentrate hard on the German text. At least from my place in the front row I had an uninterrupted view of the conductor. Our orchestra was the Corelli Orchestra – no theorbo in this perfomance, but we did have an oboe da caccia and I think an oboe d’amore appeared briefly too.
Should my path cross again with that of our bass soloist, Greg Bannan, I’ll try to compare notes as a fellow Reading fan. (This Saturday’s match had already fallen by the wayside.)
Until live music returns, I shall have to hold this concert in the memory, along with other recent ventures: the Bristol Choral Society recording; hearing Simon Rattle conduct Berg and Beethoven; being part of a visiting choir for Evensong at Bristol Cathedral; learning Byrd’s Great Service and choruses from Dido and Aeneas; attending Christmas services at St Davids; as well as the more local pleasures of going to Bath Opera and singing an anthem and a few hymns on Sunday mornings.