Organization

Conductor

Alexander Kalajdzic

Singer

Tenor

Lorin Wey

Evangelist

Bass

Frank Dolphin Wong

Jesus

Moon Soo Park

Pilate

Soprano

Cornelie Isenbürger

Jörg Dürmüller

Daniel Ochoa

Theater Bielefeld

Orchestra

Bielefelder Philharmoniker

Others

Boys' Choir of the Choir Academy at the Dortmund Concert Hall

Maulbronn Chamber Choir

7. Symphoniekonzert

Bielefeld

Germany

Rudolf-Oetker-Halle

Public

Private

St. Matthew Passion

Approved

Berlin 1823. If the elderly Babette Salomon, owner of an extensive collection of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, had not placed a copy of the score of his St. Matthew Passion under the Christmas tree for her 14-year-old grandson, we might not know anything about this important oratorio today – and significantly less about their creator. Although the aforementioned grandson, a certain Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, was allowed to see this music by his composition teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter, Zelter, like most of his contemporaries, performed Bach's music in general and the Matthew Passionin particular for hopelessly old-fashioned, complicated and brittle, in short: unperformable. So it took the Christmas present mentioned at the beginning to kindle a fire in the young Mendelssohn. With success: Around five and a half years later, after months of persuasion at the renowned Berliner Singakademie, he succeeded in bringing the St Matthew Passion back to life for the first time since Bach's death. This happened on March 11, 1829, a good hundred years after its premiere in Leipzig's Thomaskirche. What is special about the St. Matthew Passionis not only evident in its dimensions - two orchestras, two four-part choirs and, roughly simplified, two soloist quartets play music - but also in the authenticity of the content: Jesus is not the "hero from Judah", "Lord, our ruler" or " the great king, great at all times' as in comparable works, but the 'dear heart', the 'faithful Jesus' and 'my Saviour', who takes his suffering upon himself 'out of love and grace'. It speaks of the deeply human appropriation of the events of the Passion, which must have already impressed the listeners of the four guaranteed performances in Bach's time between 1727 and 1742: the soloists in their arias and the choir are moving for them and for the audience to this day in the chorales the (commenting) word,

English

7. Symphoniekonzert by Bach, J. S., From (2022/2022), Conductor Alexander Kalajdzic, Rudolf-Oetker-Halle, Bielefeld, Germany

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Ensemble

Program, About & Synopsis

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues