Easter Mélange: Bach, the “Passion” and the Saint Servatius Basilica

One of Maastricht’s most majestic groups of buildings, the Saint Servatius Basilica, became a stunning concert hall for Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Passion according to Saint Matthew” for two consecutive nights on the weekend before Easter. An innovative closed-video system with three large projection screens in the central and lateral naves of the church allowed the more than 400 audience members each night to enjoy the magnificent performance by the Limburg Symphony Orchestra.

After a lengthy introduction on the work about to be performed delivered in Dutch by a music expert, the audience became respectfully quiet. The bodies of the musicians, sitting on the altar area, grew tense. Conductor Ed Spanjaard, already in the podium, shook his baton energetically and the imposing silence inside the church was broken with a powerful chord. The violins cut through the air and the crystal-clear voices of the two choirs soared above the heads of the orchestra, reverberating against the gothic ceiling: “Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen!” (Come ye daughters, share my mourning!). For three hours and a half the rapt audience listened to the story of Jesus of Nazareth’s passion and death as narrated in the Gospel of Matthew.

Bach and the Passion
The “Saint Matthew Passion” is one of the two surviving Passions written by Bach. The date of its composition still remains uncertain, but the work was first performed in the Saint Thomas Church of Leipzig (where Bach was the cantor) on either Good Friday 1727 or two years later. The libretto by Picander includes chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew and several interpolated chorales and arias. Bach wrote the music for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra.

As a choral work, Bach’s “Passion” perhaps lacks the overpowering and sublime quality of Haendel’s “Messiah” or Mozart’s “Requiem”. The predominantly recitative style (melodic speech set to music) sometimes becomes monotonous; it does not have the colourful and florid quality of other forms of composition. However, it is precisely this recitative style that gives the “Passion” its solemn mysticism, its theological depth and its moving lyricism. The more conventional metric music employed for the turba (crowd) sections adds a nice counterpoint and reveals the spiritual magnitude of this work, which undoubtedly remains one of the crowning achievements of the Western musical cannon.

Referring to the ingenuity of Bach’s music in general, Maastricht’s Mayor Gerd Leers once said: “Bach is the mathematics of music. And this is precisely what makes his music so divine […] This gives the aficionado an almost ecstatic auditory pleasure”.

It is interesting to note, however, that the “Passion” (and most of Bach’s compositions) remained fairly unknown for a century. It was only in 1829, when composer Felix Mendelssohn performed a version of “The Passion” in Berlin, that scholars and the general public started to grow more interested in Bach’s works. “To think that it took an actor and a Jew-boy (Judensohn) to revive the greatest Christian music for the world!” Mendelssohn quipped about himself, as recorded by his friend Eduard Devrient in his memoirs of the composer.

The “Passion” in Maastricht
Performances of Bach’s Saint Matthew and Saint John Passions are frequent all over the world during the week of Easter. Not only do they prepare believers to more fully experience the commemoration of Christ’s death and resurrection, but they also offer everyone the opportunity to enjoy a powerful and imposing work of art.

Maastricht seems to be headed in the direction of establishing a tradition of performing Bach’s Passions. For the past few years (except in 2006) there have been performances of these two works, the John and Matthew Passions being performed alternatively. Next year, the Saint Matthew Passion will be performed again by the Limburg Symphony Orchestra in Maastricht and also in Maaspoort and Heerlen during the weekend of March 14-16.

Maastricht, however, is not by any means the only place in the Netherlands that enjoys Bach’s choral music. Countless performances of the Passions take place all over the country. It is worth mentioning a performance of the Saint Matthew Passion conducted by Dirkjan Horringa and sponsored by the organisation “Culturele Zondagen” that took place on March 20th 2005 in Utrecht. What was special about this performance was the use of projections over the orchestra showing paintings that depicted the scenes being played, clarifying their meaning and enhancing their emotional content.

One of the advantages of the projections used in the Utrecht concert was that subtitles with the translation from the original German text could be seen by everyone. The audience at the Saint Servatius Basilica had to purchase a handbook with the translation in Dutch. But despite the language barrier, the inspired performance by the Limburg Symphony Orchestra managed to transmit all the emotion of the score.

Conductor Ed Spanjaard led the orchestra in this colossal endeavour. Spanjaard was born in Haarlem and studied in Amsterdam and London. In 1982 he started conducting the Nieuw Ensemble, a musical formation that won the Prins Bernardfonds Music Prize in 1990. Spanjaard regularly conducts the Royal Concertgebouworkest but since August 2001 he is the chief-conductor of the Limburg Symphony Orchestra.

Supporting Spanjaard’s efforts behind the scenes were Hans Leenders and Harrie Spronken, artistic leaders of the Studium Chorale and the Limburgse Koorschool Cantarella respectively.

The Limburgse Koorschool Cantarella, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary and has contributed numerous times to the Saint Matthew Passion, particularly stands out for the age of its singers. Its members are young men and women from the Limburg region who are between 7 and 17 years old. Despite their young age, their professionalism and discipline during the concert were impeccable, something which can be hard to achieve due to the constantly changing composition of such a young choir.

Mr Spronken, music pedagogue and teacher who studied at the Maastricht Conservatorium, is in charge of the Koorschool. He stresses the importance of having children participate in events like this.

“The Passion is a very beautiful work… These days, it’s very important that the children don’t just listen to rap music. There are other very rich aspects of music that they need to know,” he says. The 26 young singers of the Limburgse Koorschool Cantarella who performed at the Saint Servatius Basilica rehearsed for four weeks in preparation for the concert. “After the performance, the children feel very proud to be involved in such a project,” says Mr Spronken, “they learn a lot and they like it very much.”

The Saint Servatius Basilica
Built over the grave of Maastricht’s first bishop (after whom the basilica takes its name) the actual construction of the Saint Servatius Basilica dates from 1039, although it continued to be built and expanded for over two centuries, well into the Gothic period.

The spacious, though chilly, halls of the elegant cloister served as rehearsal space for the young singers of the Koorschool Cantarella before the concert began. The musicians used this area as well during the intermission; here they had a chance to warm their hands around a cup of coffee.

The yard surrounded by the Gothic arches of the cloister where the musicians rested features a simple but beautiful fountain. Dedicated to Saint Servatius, this fountain was inaugurated by the bishop of Roermond, Mgr. F. Wiertz, when the modern restoration of the Basilica was completed. Started in 1981, the restoration was prepared and carried out by the Foundation for Restoration of the Church of Saint Servatius, costing nearly € 3,200,000. As the website of the Basilica mentions, when the restoration ended in 1993, “an invaluable monument was saved—from a religious, cultural, historical, and an emotional point of view”.

The Basilica had suffered immensely during the period of the French Revolution and Napoleon’s invasion of Europe The baroque decorations were lost and the furniture stolen. The church was closed and it became a warehouse for the army. This erosion of the building’s splendour was even more accentuated after the fire of 1955, which destroyed one of the towers.

The restoration, therefore, was badly needed and now everyone can admire the wondrous result. The architects and experts in charge of the restoration, however, forgot something really important. They did not foresee that the church would be used as a concert hall and only built one toilet in the cloister area. As a consequence, a very long line of impatient audience members formed around the cloister during the intermission. Slowly walking like pilgrims visiting a crypt they entered one by one in the smallest room of the entire Basilica.

The idea of a pilgrimage is not too far off the topic, since the Basilica also serves as a pilgrim’s church. Every year, during the week of Saint Servatius (around mid-June) the parishes of Maastricht and guest parishes from different countries visit the Saint’s grave.

Every seven years the “Heiligdomsvaart” (the Showing of the Relics) takes place in Maastricht. The procession of the Noodkist (Distress Chest) or reliquary, originated in the Middle Ages, where it would be carried around the city in times of calamity.

Today visitors can admire the 12th century gilded Noodkist and the other treasures of the Basilica associated with Saint Servatius: the crosier (pastoral staff), a pectoral cross, a chalice and the key that opens Heaven. Some of the most well-known visitors include Pope John Paul II, who in his 1985 visit elevated the church to basilica. In October 2001 Prince Royal Willem-Alexander and his Argentinian fiancée Máxima Zorreguieta visited the Basilica as part of Máxima’s introductory tour to the Netherlands.

The Saint Servatius Basilica is a living monument which illustrates Maastricht’s Catholic history. It is interesting to observe how nowadays performances such as Bach’s “Passion” bring more people to the church than normal religious services. What we should not forget, however, is that the “Passion” is a religious work grounded in Christian tradition and theology, a form of artistic exegesis of the Gospel of Matthew. Performances like the “Passion” which take place inside churches remind us of the historical link between arts and spirituality.

By Hector Pascual Alvarez

Hector Pascual Alvarez, 21, is a Spanish student enrolled at Macalester College in Minnesota (US) where he is majoring in International Studies and Theatre Arts. He is spending the first semester of 2007 at Maastricht University as part of a study abroad programme.