Stephan MacLeod – bass and conductor
Werner Güra – Evangelist
Rachel Redmond – soprano
Aleksandra Lewandowska – soprano
Alex Potter – alto
William Shelton – alto
Thomas Hobbs – tenor
Antonin Rondepierre – tenor
Felix Gygli – bass
Matthew Brook – bass

Johann Sebastian Bach
St Matthew Passion

Bach himself referred to it as the “great” Passion — the one for which he left a complete, fair-copy manuscript entirely in his own hand, precise and without a single erasure, in which the text of the Gospel is written in red ink. Through the twists of history and the devotion of a grandmother, this manuscript found its way into the hands of the sixteen-year-old Felix Mendelssohn.
The quintessence of Bach’s immense legacy — his opus magnum — may well be found here, in this vast fresco for two choirs, two orchestras and around ten vocal soloists, containing some of the most beautiful choruses and arias in the history of the oratorio, and indeed of music as a whole.
If you have never heard it before, know that this is a work that takes us by the hand and leads us into contemplation, compassion, the pain of guilt, the gentleness of tears and repentance. It leaves us wrung out, only to return us to ourselves in the end — perhaps closer to our own humanity than we were three hours earlier.
For Gli Angeli Genève, the St Matthew Passion is also the story of a double CD released in April 2020, during the first lockdown — seemingly into the void, or so we thought — yet one that was widely listened to online and had a significant impact, helping our ensemble reach a new milestone. Exactly seven years after that recording, this concert stands as one of the highlights of our 2025–26 season.