Bach’s St John Passion is the next major work performed by the Exeter Bach Society, writes Exmouth Road’s Chris Parrish. The performance will take place on Saturday 4 April at 7.30 pm at the Mint Church in Fore Street, Exeter, with the Exeter Bach Society Choir and Orchestra under its Director of Music, Budleigh-based Nicholas Marshall.
The soloists are:
Yet for many listeners, the drama and pacing of Bach’s first Passion setting give it a unique appeal. Robert Schumann, for example, not only admired it, but preferred it, writing to a friend: “Do you know Bach’s Passion According to St John, the so-called little one? … Don’t you think it is much bolder, more powerful, and poetical than the Passion According to St Matthew? … How full of genius, especially the choruses. And what consummate art!”
We last sang this Passion in 2005 and as before we will sing it in the original German which fits the music so much better.
The soloists are: Richard Rowntree – Evangelist;
Armin Zanner – Christus;
Elizabeth Drury – soprano;
Matthew Venner – counter-tenor;
Leslie Baker – tenor;
Stephen Foulkes – bass.
On April 7, 1724, the citizens of Leipzig crowded into the St Nicholas Church for Good Friday services. What they heard – in addition to a one-hour sermon (to which, you will be relieved to know, we shall not subject you!) – was a retelling of the Passion story as recounted in the book of John, set to music by their recently hired cantor, Johann Sebastian Bach.
The St John Passion is no small work, but it has often been overshadowed by the even more imposing St Matthew Passion that Bach produced a few years later.
Yet for many listeners, the drama and pacing of Bach’s first Passion setting give it a unique appeal. Robert Schumann, for example, not only admired it, but preferred it, writing to a friend: “Do you know Bach’s Passion According to St John, the so-called little one? … Don’t you think it is much bolder, more powerful, and poetical than the Passion According to St Matthew? … How full of genius, especially the choruses. And what consummate art!”
We last sang this Passion in 2005 and as before we will sing it in the original German which fits the music so much better.
Pictured in descending order are: Richard Rowntree, Armin Zanner, Elizabeth Drury, Matthew Venner, Leslie Baker and Stephen Foulkes.
Tickets: £12 unreserved (full time students half price) may be purchased from Exeter Visitor Information & Tickets (Tel: 01392 211080), in Dix’s Field, Exeter; members of the Exeter Bach Society, or by phoning Roger Churchward on 01392 468867. Also at the door before the performance. Wheelchair access. 
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