ConcertPulse
Guest performance
Philharmonie Berlin, Chamber Music Hall (Berlin)
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Really old and extremely lively: For many seasons now, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin has been demonstrating how thrilling music from the 17th to the early 19th century can sound in its own series at the Konzerthaus Berlin.Bach's „St Matthew Passion“ was premiered for the second time in 1829 - in the Singakademie building in Berlin, which is now home to the Maxim Gorki Theatre. The conductor was Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who was only twenty years old. He paved the way for a Bach renaissance with the version he arranged and shortened. In the era of Viennese Classicism, Bach's music had simply hardly ever been performed. The Passion, however, which was first presented to the congregation of St Thomas' Church in Leipzig in 1727, is one of the most haunting musical depictions of the story of the crucifixion.
Haydn's composition is characterised by a dramatic, extremely moving emotionality that is hard to resist. It was initially conceived as a purely instrumental composition - meditation music in seven slow movements with a prelude and final movement („Il Terremoto“ - the earthquake) for a Passion service. However, when Haydn heard an arrangement of his work with a German text in Passau in 1794, he was inspired to write his own vocal version. The premiere took place in Vienna in 1796. With the flourishing of choral societies in the 19th century, this vocal version of the Seven Words became one of the most frequently performed pieces of Passion music ever.