Saturday 24 March at 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew
Subscription Concert 2
With guest soloists Daniel Thomson (Evangelist) and Jerzy Kozlowski (Jesus)
St John’s account of the Passion of Christ is recited throughout most of the Western Church on Good Friday. Musical settings abound, from Gregorian chant to Arvo Pärt’s Passio of 1982. This program presents two of the finest German Baroque settings before Bach’s great Johannes-Passion. Demantius (1631) sets the Gospel as a large six-voice motet in three sections. Apart from introductory and concluding sentences, the text is entirely that presented in St John’s Gospel. Schütz (1666) also frames his biblical narrative with introduction and conclusion — the latter a setting of a stanza of the chorale ‘Christus, der uns selig macht,’ with which we open the program in a double-choir setting by Praetorius — but employs solo recitative for the Evangelist and individual characters, and four-voice choir for the interjections of the crowds.
PROGRAM
Praetorius Christus, der uns selig macht
Christoph Demantius Passion nach dem Evangelisten Johannes
Heinrich Schütz Historia des Leidens und Sterbens unser Herrn und Heilandes Jesu Christi nach dem Evangelisten St. Johannes
SINGERS
| Soprano Deborah Summerbell Carol Veldhoven Fiona Seers Maria Pisani Claerwen Jones Kathryn Pisani |
Alto Belinda Wong Yi Wen Chin Niki Ebacioni Rebecca Woods |
Tenor Peter Campbell Tim Van Nooten Vaughan McAlley Stuart Tennant |
Bass Andrew Murray Tim Daly Alistair Clark |