Guinness Choir and Orchestra/David Milne

St John Passion - Bach

The first of this year's performances of Bach's passions was given at the National Concert Hall on Thursday by the Guinness Choir, with a freelance orchestra heavily dotted with members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra and under the leadership of Therese Timoney.

The make-up of the orchestra looked like a good omen, and the choir's director, David Milne, is a man whose track record includes some rewarding performances of large-scale works by Bach. Sadly, Thursday's St John Passion was not one of them.

What Mr Milne offered was an evening of breathless, often snatched-at Bach. The brisk speeds and clear articulation advocated by the period performance movement are all well and good. But the character of the music needs to be retained at the same time.

The Guinness Choir made a decent stab at what their conductor was looking for, but he frequently pushed them well beyond their ability to deliver. And there were signs of strain, too, in most of the solo contributions.

Martyn Hill is an experienced Evangelist, and it shows. Soprano Carys Lane, who made such a good impression in Monteverdi's Vespers last year, was altogether less persuasive in Bach, the notes not always comfortably centred, the line not always well carried. But she performed like an angel by comparison with tenor Niall Morris whose quirky delivery and almost sob-like high notes were inappropriate.

Both the Christus of Peter Schuler and Pilate of Philip O'Reilly were altogether more reliable. But it was a newcomer, Tanya Sewell, a mezzo soprano from Kilkenny, whose unadorned beauty of voice offered the most cherishable moments of the evening.