After Passion

Barthold Heinrich Brockes was an influential German poet who added reflective and descriptive poetry into the texture of his Passion. Among several musical settings, the most famous is the one by Handel. This acclaimed staged version transports Handel’s Brockes Passion into the opera house, widening the work’s historical narrative to embrace the creation of the world, bringing a message of human greed and destruction into direct contact with the present day. The Händelfestspielorchester Halle, on period instruments, is conducted by Michael Hofstetter.

This recording was made in April 2019 at the Ernest-Ansermet Studio in Geneva, after five concerts in Switzerland during the preceding days.

On the present double album the ensemble ‘La Protezione della Musica’ directed by Jeroen Finke tackles the St Matthew Passion by Johann Cyriacus Kieling (1670–1727). This work is in a very emotional style, containing numerous short yet expressive arias, descriptive recitatives and virtuoso choruses. In its structure it anticipates the monumental, High Baroque settings of the St Matthew Passion by composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach. After hearing this world première recording the listener will look forward to further projects from this ensemble.

This recording was made in April 2019 at the Ernest-Ansermet Studio in Geneva, after five concerts in Switzerland during the preceding days. The desire to be as faithful as possible to the rhythm of the drama of the Passion and to the evidence of the musical sequences, which is easier to feel during a live performance than in front of the relative abstraction of the microphones, as well as a non-negligible time constraint (three and a half days in the studio for a work of 160 minutes), pushed us to record long takes, sometimes including up to 10 or 12 minutes of music, thus getting as close as possible to the feeling of a concert.

Recorded in 2019 at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, this world-premiere recording of Buddha Passion by the renowned and multi-award-winning composer Tan Dun, deserves a thorough listen.

"The Passion music Johann David Heinichen wrote for the Dresden court is a document of cultural and confessional openness of the Saxon residence, and his two Italian oratorios heard here are surrogates of large-scale Passion music. ""Come? S'imbruna il ciel"" - composed in 1728 - is the latest of the sepolcri, his other Passion ""L'aride tempie ignude"" the first of the sepolcri to survive from Heinichen in Dresden. Both texts are by Stefano Pallavicino, who had been active at the Dresden court since 1719. In the first-mentioned Passion, the meditation on the Passion event recurs to the experience of the earthquake that, according to biblical accounts, occurred immediately after the death of Jesus. The description of the violent natural events gives Mary the Mother of God, John (Jesus' favorite disciple), and Mary Magdalene an opportunity to reflect on their relationship to the Crucified. Different aspects of affection and love are thematized. The meditation on the Passion event in the second-named Passion is designed as an allegorical play of death (Morte) and hope (Speranza), divine love (Amor divino) and penance (Poenitenza), and follows an easily comprehensible dramaturgy. The affinity to opera seria is evident in both passions not only in the arrangement of the pieces. The keys, gestures and instrumentation also correspond to the models familiar from baroque musical theater. Full of affect!

Rebuilding and finding purpose, the first year after child loss for women, is an emotional roller coaster.