Goethe-Institut Choir

St Ann’s Church, Dublin

Bach

– Cantata No 57, 26, 116, 70

The Orchestra of St Cecilia’s 10-year, 60-concert survey of all 200 of Bach’s church cantatas has entered its final year. Between now and March, as it has done on Sunday afternoons in early spring since 2001, the OSC will host a variety of soloists, choirs and conductors in performances of Bach’s multi-part choral settings based on the church calendar and lectionary.

This first instalment of the final series featured conductor John Dexter and the Goethe-Institut Choir in performances of no fewer than four cantatas, starting with No 57 for St Stephen's Day, Selig ist der Mann( Blessed Is the Man). In the exchanges of its arias and recitatives it presented an imagined dialogue between Jesus – bass Jeffrey Ledwidge – and the Soul, soprano Lynda Lee.

In what was otherwise a fine performance – including a nicely judged trio movement with Lee, obbligato violin and continuo – there seemed some disagreement in the opening bass aria, where the orchestra, their parts marked forte, might even so have accommodated the engaging intimacy that Ledwidge seemed to intend.

The remaining three cantatas were written for the 24th, 25th and 26th Sundays after Trinity. No 26, Ach wie fluchtig( Ah How Fleeting), introduced tenor John Elwes – compelling as ever in an urgent aria about the swift passing of our days on earth – and mezzo/alto Alison Browner who, in lamenting how all joy becomes sadness at the grave, demonstrated the outstanding mix of firmness of voice and flexibility of phrasing, and of art and nature, which has always set her apart in this project.

Dexter drew clean and responsive playing from the OSC, identifying the character of each movement and exacting the shaping he wanted by means of clear direction. His Goethe-Institut Choir – if perhaps its tenors were sometimes a little too robust – were otherwise balanced and responsive both in the hymn-like chorales and in the interplay between various vocal and instrumental lines in the more complex choruses.