St. Matthew in Chicago

This afternoon David and I heard the Chicago Chorale perform Bach's St. Matthew Passion. The performance was at Rockefeller Chapel at Chicago University, just down the road from our condo.The Chorale has a very good sound and the soloists had various measures of success in their performances.

Steven Soph

Stephen Soph was a wonderful Evangelist, singing beautifully throughout the recitatives as well as the tenor arias. Not many Evangelists can do the arias as well as he did them.


  Gerard Sundberg

Equally good was the Jesus of Gerard Sundberg, singing with a rich free sound throughout. Both he and Soph sang as if they were living the text.



  Angela Young Smucker

Mezzo-soprano Angela Young Smucker sang with beautiful tone and rich phrasing.

  Ellen Hargis

The soprano, Ellen Hargis, was the most problematic of the soloists, having a lovely upper register and practically nothing in the middle voice. Someday I may write a book on finding the middle voice for sopranos....Oh. that's right, I already did that. *

       Bruce Tammen

The bass soloist was Ryan De Ryke, who sang with a vibrant voice. He needs to learn how to go from his upper range into his lower range. 

   Ryan De Ryke

The conductor, Bruce Tammen, is a puzzle to me. He prepares a wonderful chorus but conducts in a way that makes me wonder what he is thinking. He seems to favor heavy downbeats, whatever else is going on musically. Part of the problem today was that he stood behind a very high music stand which blocked most of his movement from the chorus and orchestra.

It is a wonderful work which I have performed and was a bit disappointed in today's performance.

* Sing On! Sing On!  EC Schirmer, Boston, MA.