Friday, April 21, 7.00pm
Sunday, April 23, 2.00pm
Symphony Hall

CLICK HERE for directions to Symphony Hall.

Bach’s statement of personal piety and devotion, the monumental St. Matthew Passion is one of the pillars of Western music.

Grant Llewellyn, conductor
James Gilchrist, Evangelist
Philip Cutlip, Jesus
Dominique Labelle, soprano
Paula Murrihy, mezzo-soprano
Jeffrey Thompson, tenor
Stephen Powell, baritone

This overwhelming masterpiece was first composed in 1727, and was presented as part of the Good Friday observances at Bach’s church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, following a long tradition of musical settings of the Passion narrative. Bach’s basic text is the crucifixion narrative as told in the Gospel of St. Matthew. Each event in this story prompts a musical reflection, either in an aria meditating on the personal implications, or in a chorale where the larger community responds to the unfolding story. Bach scored his work for two choirs and two orchestras, who occasionally join together: in the extraordinary opening chorus, the forces call across to each other until they are answered by yet another choir singing the melody of a chorale. The score is full of the most remarkable details, of orchestration, of musical symbolism, and above all of musical rhetoric, as the drama of this great narrative is vividly realized with purely musical means.

For further information:
http://music.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/0104_passion/index.shtml
The libretto of this great work, with some comments

http://www.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/diversen/bach/leipzig1.html
The story of Bach in Leipzig

http://www.bsherman.org/StMatthew.htm
A discussion of various recordings of the work