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Details
The Apex
1 Charter Square
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP33 3FD
England
Programme
Johann Sebastian Bach – St Mark Passion, BWV 247
Performers
Hilary Cronin – soprano
Tom Lilburn – countertenor
Hugo Hymas – tenor
Ben Noble – Bass
Benedict Collins Rice – Conductor
Geldart Ensemble
Bury Bach Choir
Programme Note
Three weeks before Easter, we perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Mark Passion (BWV 247), which tells the story of Jesus as described in St Mark’s gospel chapters 14 and 15. The first of several performances was in Leipzig, during Easter 1731, and though some of Bach’s music was since lost (seemingly by his publisher), the libretto (by Bach’s long term librettist Christian Friedrich Heinrici) survived.
As Bach was required to produce music for every church service, he often reworked music he had written to fit a new text in the same poetic metre and style. This has enabled scholars to work backwards and complete a reconstruction of this wonderful Passion setting. In this concert we will be performing the 1997 reconstruction by A.H. Gomme.
The Bury Bach Choir will be accompanied by The Geldart Ensemble, with four wonderful soloists.
Although we have often performed Bach’s St Matthew and St John Passions, this will be the choir’s first performance of the St Mark Passion in our 93-year history and will probably be the first time you’ve heard it too. Very exciting indeed.
