March 24, 2027 - 7:30 PM (lecture at 6:30 PM)
Church of St. Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson Street, NY NY 10014
CPE Bach - St Matthew Passion (1769 version)
The Choir of St. Luke in the Fields
C.P.E. Bach (son of Johann Sebastian) continued his father's grand tradition of composing dramatic oratorio settings of the Passions for his churches in Hamburg. The original scores and performing materials for these Passions disappeared from Berlin during World War II and were believed lost. The rediscovery of the archives in 1999 in a back storeroom in Kiev made it possible, finally, to mount a modern performance. The St. Matthew Passion of 1769 is one of C.P.E.’s finest, sumptuously scored, and engagingly capturing the drama, agony and ultimate triumph found in the Holy Week story.