Johannes-Passion

In the organizer's words:

Program
Johann Sebastian Bach
St. John Passion BWV 245
1724

Cast
Shira Patchornik soprano
Sara Mingardo mezzo-soprano
Andrew Staples Teno
Mirko Ludwig Tenor
Christian Wagner Bass
La Cetra Vokalensemble
Andrea Marcon Conductor

The tragedy begins with the first note. Above a throbbing bass and restlessly driving strings, oboes and flutes spiral upwards in painful dissonances. Music as if a tormented soul were writhing in its agony. When the choir enters at the climax of this monumental structure, it sounds like a cry that is suffering and redemption in one. Johann Sebastian Bach's St. John Passion: a stroke of genius whose harsh drama is still stirring and immediately moving today. The Passion tells of the suffering and death of Jesus, but also of human life with its joys and pains, hopes and disappointments, full of empathy and emotional coldness, loyalty and betrayal. "This music expresses things that no one has ever dared, been able or even tried to say with sound." So said the composer Hans Werner Henze about the St. John Passion. And he hit the nail on the head. Our performance with the magnificent La Cetra vocal ensemble under the direction of Andrea Marcon replaces monumentality with closeness and tells of people in all their weakness and vulnerability.