Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
St. John Passion by J.S. Bach,
performed by Musica Sacra, Kent Tritle conducting
Rufus Müller, Evangelist *
Matt Boehler, Christus
Mary Ellen Callahan, Soprano
Barbara Rearick, Mezzo Soprano
Paul Appleby, Tenor
Tyler Duncan, Baritone
At the Rose Theater, in Frederick P. Rose Hall, at Columbus Circle,
entrance at 60th Street and Broadway, Manhattan
ticket prices: $25-$110
to purchase tickets online, go to http://www.MusicaSacraNY.com/season-2008-2009.php and scroll down to the St. John box. (Don’t get stuck on the first box which is for the whole season’s subscription – altho’ I’m sure it would be great to go to all of their concerts!)
or to purchase tickets by phone, call 212-734-7688
If you are familiar with this work, then you already know that it is one of the finest pieces in the universe. If you’ve never heard it, and you live close enough to NY to attend, you will hear some music that I think you will find exquisitely beautiful and deeply moving.
It is being performed by Musica Sacra, a very fine professional orchestra and chorus that has been performing Baroque works and other choral masterpieces since 1964. Musica Sacra’s founder, Richard Westenburg, passed away earlier this year, and he is terribly missed by New York’s musical community. He conducted Musica Sacra’s performances from its beginning until last season and I am very grateful that I got to do some Bach with him several years ago. It was great fun! Kent Tritle has been chosen to be the organization’s new music director, and I have worked with him several times in the past as well. He’s wonderful to collaborate with and I am really looking forward to doing this wonderful music with him in October!
* I’m confident that all the other soloists whom I haven’t met yet will be fine singers, but I do want to let you know that the part of the evangelist will be sung by tenor Rufus Müller. I sang the Messiah with him several years ago, and was incredibly impressed. He is one of the finest singers I’ve ever heard.
About the St. John Passion, Musica Sacra’s website says:
“First heard in Leipzig in 1724, the St. John Passion is now a beloved pillar of western music, and for good reason! In contrast to his setting of the St. Matthew Passion, Bach’s St John Passion is raw and unbridled. A highly personal tone pervades the arias, choruses, chorales and especially the dramatic narration. In keeping with the tradition established in Musica Sacra’s last three performances of the St. Matthew, the chorales of the St. John will once again envelop the audience with the surround-sound effect of the Musica Sacra Chorale Choir.”
About Bach:
Nicholas Slonimsky, late editor of Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, says this in his entry on “Bach, Johann Sebastian, supreme arbiter and lawgiver of music, a master comparable in greatness of stature with Aristotle in philosophy and Leonardo da Vinci in art.”
Goethe said about Bach, “It is as though eternal harmony were conversing with itself, as it may have happened in God’s breast shortly before he created the world.”
Beethoven called Bach, “the immortal god of harmony” and “his name should not be ‘brook’ [bach] but ’sea’”.
Charles Gounod said “Bach is a Colossus of Rhodes, beneath whom all musicians pass and will continue to pass. …Bach is the most comprehensive and has said all there is to say.”
