Reviews

Review: St. Matthew Passion with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

25.03.2008

“ Holland has gained a new Baroque conductor. Yannick Nézet-Séguin (32), who becomes chief conductor of the RPO next season, has been proving this week that with a normal-sized choir ( 2 x 16 singers) and a normal symphony orchestra format (2 string sections of 18) it is still possible to put one’s strictly personal signature on Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.
The most striking aspect of his interpretation is his preference for a breathless pianissimo sound, within which even the smallest nuances cause a stir. It is an atmosphere which invites musicians to put their heart and soul into the performance, and in which vocal soloists don’t need to battle against a massive orchestral sound. […]
Minor miracles were achieved within the orchestral groups. A pair of flutes humbly lowered their heads in the ‘O Mensch’ chorale, the oboe d’amore in stockinged feet genuflected before the Last Supper. This made the natural violence which followed all the more shocking: ‘Sind Blitze, sind Donner’ rushed by at a breakneck tempo and with a theatrical gesture. The NKK contributed precisely phrased singing, given light and shade by means of strong accents.” […]

Bela Luttmer