First performed in Stuttgart in 2000, the St Mark Passion was a breakthrough for Osvaldo Golijov: it brought him international recognition as a composer. It was one of four choral pieces - the others were by Rihm, Gubaidulina and Tan Dun - commissioned to mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, and it has subsequently been performed with great success, especially in the US.
This performance, the second of two concerts at the Barbican devoted to Golijov's music, was the British premiere. Golijov takes the passion story as told in Mark's gospel, adds in other texts reflecting upon the events and presents it all as if it were a piece of South American street theatre, complete with solo vocalists, brass band, percussion group, a sizeable chorus and a couple of capoeira dancers.
There is a string orchestra to supply the "European" element. Though the main language of the text is Spanish rather than Portuguese, most of the cultural references and musical styles evoked here are Brazilian. There are borrowings, too, from the music of Cuba, as well as hints of popular songs from Golijov's native Argentina.
If a European composer had perpetrated such an act of musical miscegenation, one suspects, they would have been derided for their presumption. Yet even this piece might have been more justifiable had it gained from this plurality of styles. In its interleaving of narrative layers, and its combination of poetry and biblical texts, La Pasíon is similar to John Adams's nativity oratorio El Niño, and its half-baked theatrical elements recall parts of Bernstein's Mass - but it lacks the overarching coherence of both those scores.
A five-minute burst of percussion can be exhilarating; one or two of the individual vocal numbers are beguiling. But I'd rather hear the percussion in a Brazilian city square, or the sultry ballad in a Buenos Aires night spot. In this 90-minute work they never cohered, despite the best efforts of the Orquesta la Pasíon, the Schola Cantorum de Carácas and the bevy of solo singers and dancers, all conducted by Maria Guinand.
