Der Tod Jesu is interesting as a missing link between Bach and later, but too dull to fascinate for an hour and a half ★★★☆☆

Hallelujah! After two years of near-silence, the Netherlands is once again gloating to passion time. Of course it will be Bachs in particular soon St Matthew Passion kissed awake, our national prima donna. But the Netherlands Bach Society is already rubbing its muscles with a rarity from 1755: Der Tod Jesus by Carl Heinrich Graun. No mean boy, he was bandmaster to the fanatically flute-playing monarch Frederick the Great.

In the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the text surrounding Christ’s crucifixion read smoothly enough. “There is the sad, fateful post. With every blow the nail pierces nerves, veins and bones.’ But in the inevitable comparison with Bach, Graun gradually withered. Der Tod Jesus is interesting as a missing link between Bach and later, but too dull to keep you interested for an hour and a half.

Not that there wasn’t beautiful music. Beneath Jesus’ weakened breath, the baroque orchestra gave a faint heartbeat. The choristers wept sweetly subdued after His death. But if Bach dragged the Leipzig church people by the hair through the drama around 1730, in Berlin the court and opera composer Graun hopped almost frivolously from song to song.

Six arias: all too long. Moreover, the three soloists meandered differently between devotion and theatre. The soprano Rachel Redmond chose the angelic. In Marcel Beekman’s case, the operator cracked through. Only the bass-baritone Matthias Winckhler found a pleasant middle ground between passion and reflection.

Shunske Sato, artistic director of the Bach Society, now conducted in full and then led from the violin. The combi makes curious about his first Matthäus-tour, which he will kick off on April 2 in Groningen.