Bach's St. John Passion Returns to the BSO After an Absence of 30 Years

Famed Bach Specialist Masaaki Suzuki Makes his BSO Debut Leading the Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and Frou Soloists New to BSO Audiences, Hana Blažíková, Ingeborg Danz, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, AND Christoph Prégardien

Performances to take place Thursday, April 21, and Saturday, April 23, at 8 p.m.,and Friday, April 22, at 1:30 p.m.

Lovers of Bach receive a rare treat Thursday, April 21–Saturday, April 23 when leading conductor and Bach expert Masaaki Suzuki, founder and director of the Bach Collegium Japan, leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus,John Oliver, conductor, in three performances of one of Bach’s greatest masterpieces, the St. John Passion. Maestro Suzuki, whose ongoing recordings of the complete Bach cantata cycle has received outstanding critical acclaim, is known for combining erudite scholarship with a passionate approach to performance to create truly compelling realizations of the Baroque master’s greatest works. Three of the evening’s soloists will be making their BSO debuts, including soprano Hana Blažíková, mezzo-soprano Ingeborg Danz, and bass-baritoneHanno Müller-Brachmann. Christoph Prégardien, who appeared with the BSO once before, in February 1996 for a performance of Haydn’s The Seasons, will sing the tenor role.

With these performances, Bach’s St. John Passion returns to the BSO after an absence of 30 years; the performances also coincide with Holy Week, which for Christians marks the last week of Lent and the days leading to the celebration of Easter.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Bach’s St. John Passion was written for Good Friday in 1724 during Bach’s first year as music director at Thomaskirche Leipzig—the church for which the composer would write much of his greatest sacred music over the following 27 years. Bach revised the work several times after its first performance, but the "definitive" 1749 version—which will be used in these performances—restores much of the original score. More intimate and immediate than the later, better-known St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion combines settings of text from Martin Luther’s German translation of the Gospel According to St. Luke with a variety of ancillary material, including sections with text explaining or commenting upon the events of the Passion and their religious significance and chorales from well-known hymnals of the time. Musically, the work is a constant stream of Bach’s masterful counterpoint, elegant writing for solo voice, and choral music.