In the broader cultural flow, the direction is always from the sacred to the secular realm. Halloween, once a Christian religious observance on the eve of All Saints Day, has become a costumed extravaganza where young children parade around neighborhoods at dusk and cadge candy from strangers. Public art museums now house vast numbers of Madonnas and crucifixion tableaux that once adorned church altars and promoted devotion. Now they are tourist attractions and primers for art historians.

Music that was written to inspire worshipers and nurture their spiritual life is now more likely to be experienced as concert fare for symphony subscribers than in the churches that occasioned this music. This transition came into particular focus Saturday (April 30) at UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium, where the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus presented J. S. Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” under the baton of Chorus Director David Chase.

This intrepid town-and-gown community orchestra and chorus knows no fear, regularly undertaking sprawling Mahler symphonies, cutting-edge contemporary compositions, and a three-hour marathon choral work such as the “St. Matthew Passion” without batting an eyelid. In a time when few—if any—churches could afford to underwrite such a large Bach project and even a professional symphony’s overtime budget would sink under its extensive demands, UCSD’s crew is the likely candidate to bring the work to life. And they did it with honor.

Chase’s reverent treatment of the chorales, the four-part hymns that chart the spiritual progress of the Passion, endowed this performance with its richest rewards. While he clearly delineated their elegant counterpoint and intense harmonies, he more importantly stressed the emotional impact of the chorale texts in all their breadth and variety. In the chorales, the choir exhibited its best, most luxuriant choral timbre. And in the more dramatic choral sections, notably those involving the crowd scenes at the trial of Jesus, his 100-voice choir proved its mettle with clean attacks and well-disciplined rhythms.

From Chase’s chorus I sensed the spiritual gravity of the “St. Matthew Passion,” a work intended to stir the individual and collective conscience of Bach’s Leipzig congregations during Good Friday services. But from the La Jolla soloists I sensed a different direction entirely, a more secular, operatic display of emotion that distanced them and La Jolla audience from Bach’s goal. Only in mezzo-soprano Janelle De Stefano’s touching aria “Erbarme dich, Gott” (“Have mercy, Lord”), with her effortless, floating lines and solo violinist Peter Clarke’s soaring obbligato, did I perceive that reflective, inner quality so essential to a Passion.

Baritone Abdiel Gonzalez and tenor Benjamin Bliss each brought considerable technical and dynamic prowess to their arias, but it proved too much of a good thing. For a Handel opera, they were right on the money, but Gonzalaz’s arias towards the end of the second half of the Passion were too stentorian, too at odds in tone to the tragic denouement to be effective in the Passion context. Bliss’s portrayal of Pontius Pilate, however, was most sympathetic, as Bach and the Gospel writer intended.

As the Evangelist, tenor Jon Lee Keenan could boast the best command of the German text on the La Jolla stage, and his sweet, bright timbre was just right for for a Schubert song cycle. But as the ever-present Evangelist, the narrator of the entire Passion, his lack of dynamic contrast and unrelenting full-voice approach were not effective. The Evangelist’s line should be entirely text driven, a supple recitative replete with delicate inflection, but Keenan consistently attempted to make pretty melodies out of every phrase. He should have heard Aaron Sheehan sing the Evangelist role in Bach’s other Passion with the Bach Collegium San Diego two weeks ago and taken copious notes! He made a few lines of Bach recitative more ingratiating than a Schubert song.

Neither soprano Angela Cadelago nor baritone Gregorio Gonzalez seemed comfotable in their roles, and his monochromatic portrayal of Jesus, one in which he gave every syllable the same emphasis and essayed no dynamic contrast at all, was distressing. Jesus as a super-human oracle is neither true to the Passion story nor to Bach’s music.

Chase appropriately trimmed down the orchestra to some 30 members divided into two orchestras, a taut number to accompany but not overpower his singers. Overall, the instrumental ensemble proved clean and their sonority robust when called for. The solo flute work was uniformly agile and well-tuned, and continuo cellist Eric Moore provided luxurious, tasteful bass support throughout the performance. At the keyboard, Victoria Heins-Shaw crafted her continuo realizations with adroit precision. It is taking all of my diplomacy to refrain from commenting on the electronic instrument she was provided.

At the close of this “St. Matthew Passion,” I felt that I had attended a well-produced Handel oratorio filled with many attractive, even exciting moments. But I missed the unrelenting stream of Bach’s piety, the elusive spiritual ethos of a Lutheran Passion.

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