After Passion

Although progressive rock reached its commercial peak in the '70s, it certainly didn't disappear after the '70s. Progressive rock, after all these years, continues to be recorded, and this late 2010/early 2011 recording finds Pendragon still plugging away after 32 years. Pendragon have experienced some lineup changes along the way; the 21st century edition of the band heard on Passion unites two members of the original 1978 lineup (lead singer/guitarist Nick Barrett and bassist Peter Gee) with 1986 arrival Clive Nolan (keyboards) and 2008 arrival Scott Higham (drums). And stylistically, these prog veterans have definitely evolved; Pendragon still draw on old-school influences like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Jethro Tull, and King Crimson, but there are also post-'80s influences that range from Porcupine Tree to Radiohead.

In 1767 the Music Director of Hamburg, Georg Philipp Telemann, died. As his successor, his godson Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, was appointed. One of his duties was to compose and perform a setting of the Passion every year. In Hamburg the Passions were performed in a four-year cycle, in which the Gospels alternated, starting with St Matthew and closing with St John. Bach asked Telemann's grandson, Georg Michael, who had taken over his grandfather's duties for the time being, what the circumstances of Passion performances in Hamburg were, assuming his first duty was to compose a Passion for 1768. But his departure from Berlin was delayed and he arrived in Hamburg shortly before Easter 1768. Therefore his first Passion was the St Matthew Passion of 1769…
Johan van Veen

Have you ever wondered what or who is the missing link between the Passions of J.S. Bach and the more ‘enlightened’ oratorios of Josef Haydn and his contemporaries? For that matter how did things come to change so quickly? I have recently reviewed some cantatas by Gottfried Homilius (1714-1785) on Carus 83.183 and he is certainly a link. But really it is C.P.E. Bach, that great reactionary and under-estimated genius, who is ‘yer man’.