GOLIJOV La Pasión según San Marcos (St. Mark Passion)
Deutsche Grammophon 477 7461 (2 CDs)
Also included is a DVD of the work recorded in concert at the 2008 Holland Festival.
Few classical works of recent origin have stirred the emotions of more listeners around the world quite like Osvaldo Golijov’s powerful and exultant setting of the Passion according to St. Mark as South American street theater. It was commissioned by the International Bach Academy for performances in Stuttgart in 2000 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of JS Bach’s death. Casting the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ final days in the form of an unabashedly populist pageant, La Pasión según San Marcos is, of course, as different from the Bach Passions as an explosion of Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms is from Bach’s meditative Lutheran chorales. The hour-and-a-half-long work builds a huge song out of many, reflecting the diverse musical strains of the composer’s Argentinian, Central European and Jewish heritage.
Christ’s words are divided among male and female singers and chorus voices. In a dozen sections linked by dances in the style of the Afro-Brazilian capoeira (martial arts), the composer melds an astonishing array of music. Solo and massed voices, laced with drums and folk percussion instruments from Cuba and Bahia, lighten the tragic mood. Echoes of Stravinsky and minimalism merge smoothly with the vernacular elements. La Pasión según San Marcos is earthy and exuberant: a wildly colorful fresco of faith. This is Golijov’s grandest score to date, and also, to my mind, his masterpiece.
This latest addition to DG’s ongoing Golijov series marks the second recording of Pasión on CD. The first, which hänssler CLASSIC released in 2001, was a live recording of the world premiere, which used some of the same solo, choral and instrumental forces as are to be found on the new DG set, under the same conductor, the vigorous Maria Guinand. (Musicians from the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela augment the Orquesta La Pasión on the new set). While there’s a certain documentary value to hänssler’s ‘original cast’ version, it is superseded in every respect by the DG release, which derives in the main from studio sessions in Caracas in 2007 and 2008.
The performers’ greater familiarity and security with the work has both clarified and intensified their grasp of what makes La Pasión según San Marcos a living work of art. The dozen sections form a much more coherent whole without sacrificing dramatic immediacy. I miss the marvelous singer Luciana Souza, but her replacement, the smoky-voiced Latin-American alto Biella Da Costa, is a fine soloist in her own right. The soprano Jessica Rivera supplies two calming interludes, including the haunting ‘Lúa descolorida’, an aria that has taken on a life of its own in concerts and recitals.
But what really tips the scales in favor of the new version is the superiority of DG’s recorded sound: closer microphone placement has made the voices and instruments clearer, more direct and more impactful, while the vast array of percussion – a distant blur in the hänssler set – emerges as an aural rainbow of vivid, distinct colors, just as it was meant to be heard.
Because the Golijov Pasión needs to be seen as well as heard, DG has helpfully packaged its audio recording with a complete – and different – performance on video. The DVD version was recorded in concert under Robert Spano’s baton at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam in June 2008. The rest of the performers are pretty much the same as those taking part in the studio recording. Both performances sizzle with energy but the video carries the extra frisson of a live performance. The choral singers clap, sway in unison and stamp their feet. A capoeira dancer, Deraldo Ferreira, mimes the crucifixion as the chorus-as-rabble taunts Jesus. The Afro-Cuban vocalist and dancer Reynaldo González-Fernandez is as terrific as ever. Executing some fancy Latin dance steps of his own, conductor Spano holds together the apparatus of singers, choristers and players in a sure but flexible grip. The lighting drenches the performers in hot colors while the camera dances to the Golijov vibe.
DG has given us the definitive La Pasión según San Marcos. Don’t miss it.
Posted Dec 22, 2010 at 5:40 am by The Classical Review CDs / DVDs » Blog Archive » The Classical Review’s 10 Best Recordings of 2010
[...] GOLIJOV La Pasión según San Marcos (St. Mark Passion) (DG) Fervent performances in a faultless recording made a compelling claim for Osvaldo Golijov’s “powerful and exultant” re-telling of the Passion according to St. Mark. Seamlessly blending musical idioms from the composer’s Argentinean, Central European and Jewish heritage, the result has all the energy and excitement of South American street theater – its many attractions vividly captured on both CD and, in a thrilling filmed performance, on a bonus DVD. [...]