Thirteen Strings solid but unspectacular

Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra Kevin Mallon, conductor, with Sarah Halmarson, soprano; Maude Brunet, mezzo-soprano; Christopher Mayell, tenor and Andrew Love, baritone. St. Andrew’s Church Reviewed: Friday, 8 p.m.

There has been some controversy in recent decades as to whether the choruses in Bach’s cantatas, passions and so on were originally intended for full choirs, or for one voice to each part. In most cases we hear a small to medium size chorus, but recordings are sometimes made on the smaller scale, and on Friday evening, the Thirteen Strings presented four Easter-tide cantatas that way.

This makes sense in that these scores are made up mainly of arias and duets, the four-voice numbers being infrequent and mainly short.

Cantata no. 42 is a particularly cheerful one. It opens with a bright and vigorous sinfonia that features some beautiful writing for two oboes and bassoon along with the strings. These were in the capable hands of Charles Hamann, Anna Petersen Stearns and Benjamin Glossop respectively.

Aside from the voices being on the small side, the singing was generally solid. Mezzo Maude Brunet’s rendition of the first aria, Wo zwei und drei, got things off to a good start. The most effective solo aria was Jesu ist ein Schild der Seinen, sung by bass Andrew Love. The concluding chorale, sung by the quartet of soloists, worked well.

Next came one of the best-known of Bach’s cantatas, Christ lag in Todes Bonden (no. 4). Here the voices were not much of a presence in the choral numbers.

The solos and duets, however, were nice. The soprano-alto duet Den Tod nimand was especially beautiful. In the aria Jesus Christus, Gottes Sohn tenor Christopher Mayell didn’t have the same degree of focus as his colleagues. He seemed to be reaching much of the time.

The second half of the program began with the fragmentary Cantata 158, Der Friede sei mit dir. What survives of this work is primarily for bass with an accompaniment of three instruments, violin, cello and organ, the latter two as continuo players. A lovely, choralelike obligato to the main bass aria was provided by soprano Sarah Halmarson.

The final offering was Cantata 134, Ein Herz, das seinem Jesum leben weiss, like Cantata 42 a joyful one. In the aria Auf, Gläubige seemed to be operating uncomfortably close to his technical limits.

In fact, by this point he and mezzo Brunet were starting to sound tired. The orchestra sounded good, if not especially idiomatic, throughout the program.

Although this wasn’t one of the Thirteen Strings’ best concerts of recent memory, there was a bigger crowd in St. Andrew’s than the orchestra has drawn in some time.