Gli Angeli Genève

Stephan MacLeod bass and conductor
Aleksandra Lewandowska et Deborah Cachet sopranos
Charles Sudan alto
Samuel Boden tenor
Drew Santini bass

Johann Sebastian Bach
St John Passion

In Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach composed several Passions for Good Friday services. Some have been lost, and of the two that have survived, the St John Passion is one of urgency, of shaken humanity, of immediate and exacerbated feelings, in contrast to the St Matthew Passion, whose tone is more contemplative. Here, everything is theatre, everything is spectacle. Bach and his librettist chose to take the Evangelist’s account at the very moment of Christ’s betrayal and arrest. There is no retreat here, no respite: the listener is gripped from the very first bars of the work, and the combined effects of the power of the narrative and the depth of Bach’s music will never let go.
A performance of the St John Passion, however historically informed, is inevitably a compromise. Bach did not leave a definitive version, as he did for the St Matthew Passion. The puzzle he left us nonetheless forms one of the finest musical works in history, tragic, thrilling and breathtakingly beautiful.

The concert is preceded by a presentation by Mr Philippe Albèra at 4.15 pm.