by Daniel Hathaway
YESTERDAY’S BACH PASSION FROM LEIPZIG:
One of the most intriguing live streamed performances during the pandemic took place on Good Friday at 3:00 pm Leipzig time next to the tomb of Johann Sebastian Bach in the Thomaskirche.
A special chamber version of the St. John Passion, scheduled for the Leipzig Bachfest on June 13, called for Icelandic tenor Benedikt Kristlánsson to take on multiple roles, assisted by harpsichordist and organist Elina Albach and percussionist Philipp Lamprecht. On April 10, those musicians were joined by five singers led by Thomaskantor Gotthold Schwarz.
That June performance would have filled Leipzig’s Market Square with 50 Bach choirs from all over the globe singing the congregational chorales. For the Good Friday performance, viewers were invited to join in the performance remotely. As Bach-Fest artistic director Michael Mau noted, “Five thousand singers were to have taken part on Marktplatz in June. With you, that figure today might be 50,000 or more. Soli Deo Gloria!”
Click here to view the program notes and libretto, provided by the Bach Archive and publishers Carus-Verlag, which includes the music for the chorales. Note also — on page two — how you can contribute to a fund for Leipzig freelance musicians who have lost work due to the pandemic. Then click here to watch the archived performance on Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. (The Passion begins 12 minutes into the video, preceded and followed by motets.)
CLEVELAND CHAMBER CHOIR LAUNCHES RELIEF FUND:
Cleveland Chamber Choir, Scott MacPherson, artistic director, has created the More than Music Artist Relief Fund, a fundraiser to support local performing musicians impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Read about the initiative here, and listen to a remotely assembled version of Abbie Betinis’ Resilience that was sung on the ensemble’s March Social Justice Concerts — the first in a series of virtual performances to be released during the pandemic.
TODAY IN MUSIC HISTORY:
In 1770, Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart heard Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere performed during Holy Week by the Sistine Chapel Choir at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The setting of Psalm 51 with its ornate embellishments was closely guarded by the choir — until the 14-year-old Mozart wrote it out from memory. Hear the work sung by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge led by the late Stephen Cleobury, from a DVD of the BBC’s broadcast “Easter from King’s.”
Ernest Bloch’s Avodah Hakodesh (“Sacred Service”), a full setting of the Hebrew text of the Sabbath morning service, received its first American performance in New York’s Carnegie Hall on April 11, 1934. The composer (who was president of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1920-1925) conducted, and Hugh Ross prepared the 250-voice Schola Cantorum. Listen to a complete performance with Leonard Bernstein leading the New York Philharmonic and the Choirs of the Community Church of New York and the Metropolitan Synagogue here.
STREAMING TODAY (BUT NOT FREE):
Today’s MET Opera HD archived performance is Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, starring Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, and John Del Carlo, conducted by James Levine. The 7:30 pm show is a rebroadcast of a performance from November 13, 2010. These nightly streams were supposed to be free, but this note appeared on the MET’s website today: “Don Pasquale is only available with a Met Opera on Demand subscription or rental ($4.99).” Click here at start time.
