Friday, April 10, 2020

St. John Passion from Leipzig (Singer, Organ/Harpsichord/Percussion)

I just watched (along with about 7,000 people from everywhere in the world) an extraordinary socially distanced performance of the Bach St. John Passion that was broadcast from Leipzig this morning. It was recorded and assembled a few days ago for broadcast today, but the watching and listening experience felt like it was happening in real time.

I'm putting the link to the archived performance here so you can watch as well.

I took a few screen shots. There is one soloist who sings all the solo parts, and the instrumental parts are brilliantly arranged for percussion (one player) and harpsichord and organ (also one player).


There is an in-house solo choir accompanied by organ and viola da gamba:


The chorales were sung by different choirs. The singers recorded their parts at home, and were mixed together for the broadcast. Here's a screenshot of one choir.


The performance was given just a few feet from Bach's grave.

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