St Ann’s Church, Dublin

Bach– Cantatas 122, 151, 152, 133

One of the fixtures in the Orchestra of St Cecilia’s annual round of Bach cantatas has been an appearance by conductor Geoffrey Spratt and his vocal ensemble for past members of the Irish Youth Choir, Canticum Novum. For their final concert in the 10-year series, this specially convened group would surely have relished a greater challenge than the two straightforward choruses and three chorales the programme had to offer.

In all those numbers, assured choral technique was evident through fine balances and proactive consonants. Yet only one brief moment – the tail-end passage work of the opening chorus to Cantata 133 – revealed how agile these singers truly are.

This was a rare occasion in the series when the knotty task of apportioning the 200 cantatas to 50 concerts necessarily resulted in uneven workloads for the available forces. Contributions from tenor soloist Robin Tritschler were thus regrettably restricted to the trio from Cantata 122 and a couple of fluent recitatives. Contralto Alison Browner’s somewhat larger share consisted of the trio and two admirably controlled arias.

The bulk of the work, however, fell to soprano Lynda Lee and bass Jeffrey Ledwidge, who, in addition to four numbers each, had the whole of Cantata 152 to themselves. The key in which Bach intended this work to sound remains controversial, and the OSC’s choice of G minor meant that modern violas could take the place of the prescribed instrument, the long-lost viola d’amore. This brought Ledwidge’s part comfortably within his own range, but tended to have the opposite effect for Lee.

Here, and in Lee’s aria from Cantata 133, Spratt opted for heavy, sometimes spondaic treatment of the instrumental patterns that impeded their flow. These instances, however, were exceptions to a general rule of refined phrasing and taut, resonant execution.