Bach Collegium Japan: July 28, Masaaki Suzuki conducting in Suntory Hall -- "Saint John Passion," BWV 245 (Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750) featuring Gerd Tyrk, Stephan MacLeod, Chiyuki Urano, Midori Suzuki and Robin Blaze

July 28, when the "Saint John Passion" was presented, was a symbolic date: 250 years to the day when the greatest master of the baroque ceased his endeavors.

Suntory Hall did not miss the opportunity to recognize such a musical milestone, and planned a series this year of Bach's three major choral works, the "Saint Matthew Passion," the "Saint John" and the B-minor Mass. The performances and attendant lectures were entrusted to Bach scholar Masaaki Suzuki, conducting the Bach Collegium Japan. The collegium is a modified period performance-style ensemble comprising 16 voices, 24 instruments and the central, unifying, solo tenor part for the evangelist.

When we hear Bach's compositions, they seem to remain perennially rich, fresh, compelling, beguiling. His music is not overexposed in everyday performance. This is partly because there are fundamental problems to resolve in any Bach performance, problems which might dissuade a conductor from presenting this music.

Mozart was born only six years after Bach's death. His music and that of later composers is readily adapted to the instruments and ensembles of the present day. Bach's music, however, represented the end and culmination of an older performance tradition, that of the renaissance and baroque. Contrapuntal music was then anchored harmonically in the basso continuo, a practice subsequently discarded. The instruments and their mechanics, including the technique of the bow, evolved further after Bach's time too, and the concepts of sonority and tone color greatly changed as a consequence.

Should this music then be performed as the composer originally conceived of it, using the types and numbers of instruments and performers he used to produce the sound and style of his time? Or should this music be performed with the full benefit of modern instruments, techniques and numbers, so as to produce the full-voiced sonorities contemporary concertgoers have come to expect?

The New York Times this week announced the inauguration of the Bach Digital Library, giving online access to documents culled from seven repositories of Bach manuscripts. MP3 streaming capability will also allow users to listen to and compare performances of certain works under different conductors.

Bach was first and foremost a virtuoso organist, a performer. That in part is what makes his music so compelling: It truly works. Naturally, he wrote new music for his performances; naturally, he taught his musicians to play artistically for his performances.

He thought of himself, though, not as a composer but as a performer. With great economy, efficiency and effectiveness, Bach composed week after week for a chorus of 12 and an orchestra of 18. For special occasions he energetically solicited the Leipzig town council for extra funds to enlarge his forces.

Mozart's music is generally performed today with a reduced orchestra string section including, typically, 22 violins. In one of his frequent letters to his father, though, he wrote of his pleasure at hearing his music played by a very large orchestra with 40 violins. Intimate and expansive approaches are equally valid.

Influenced by his studies in Amsterdam with Ton Koopman, Suzuki has embraced the intimate approach, implementing many of the stylistic precepts of period performance. The numbers of the Bach Collegium Japan's chorus and orchestra are only marginally larger than those for Bach's regular weekly productions at the Leipzig Thomaskirche. Sitting in the balcony of 2,006-seat Suntory Hall, I marveled at the collegium's ability to marshal a very sizable and appreciative audience. On the other hand, I wished I were hearing their delicate textures in a much smaller chamber.

Suzuki made nice work of the sonorities he commanded, antiphonally disposing the strings on his left and the winds on the right, surrounding the continuo group in the center. This may well have been true to Bach's own prescription, and it did render the various instrumental colors clearly.

He seemed to render the music more for its substance than for its character in telling a passionately dramatic story. Temperamentally, Suzuki was considerably gentler than "the old perruque" (Carl Philipp Emanuel's indulgent description of his father). The great performer knew that inner vigor is a compelling compensation for insignificant volume.

Gerd Tyrk's beautiful lyric tenor as the Evangelist was heard throughout the hall, and it was evident in the narration that he was telling stories he knew well. In keeping with the practice of the period, the alto part was sung by a man, countertenor Robin Blaze. He was uncommonly successful in bringing this off on its own merits, singing expressively and rendering his highest tones with a lovely quality. Singing the part of Peter and Pilate, bass-baritone Chiyuki Urano was clear and commanding.

Without a single inefficient motion, Suzuki alternately conducted and added the harpsichord accompaniment to the dramatic recitatives advancing the story line. A calm and rational person by nature, he seemed to communicate marginally the passionate agitation in the dramatic conflicts. He found musical solutions to the dramatic portrayals, leveling the emotional extremes.

The sound and the sense were improved in the middle of the hall, where the detail and the ensemble made more of a vigorous aural impression. The most committed playing in the orchestra was offered by the two cellists. Would that the ladies of the violin section had projected some of the same vital energy. A similar situation obtained in the chorus, where one soprano and one bass sang with total commitment. For the rest, it seemed that the meek were inhabiting the stage.

If Bach had been presiding over this performance, I believe that he would have filled the stage with larger forces, and pugnaciously pumped the "Passion" until it was replete with righteous emotional energy. Perhaps -- but for two and a half centuries Bach's musical legacy has been entrusted to dedicated enthusiasts like Suzuki to carry forward. The performance in Suntory Hall was certainly a musical one, and it gave many Bach fans in Japan much satisfaction.