CCome and Sing Mozart Coronation Mass K 317 Saturday May 17th 10.00am-3.00pm Winchester College Music School Elgar The Dream of Gerontius Francis Pott Sentinel (fi rst performance) Thursday November 20th 7.30pm Winchester Cathedral Bach St John Passion Saturday April 5th St Swithun’s School P.A.C. Statue of Bach outside Thomaskirche Leipzig Janette Lloyd Winchester Music Club Bach St John Passion Saturday April 5th St Swithun’s School P.A.C. Jeremy Budd Evangelist Jonathan Brown Christus Marie Macklin soprano Sarah Denbee mezzo soprano Jonathan McGovern bass Winchester Music Club Choir and Orchestra Brian Howells Leader Nicholas Wilks Conductor Please ensure that your mobile phone is switched off for the duration of the concert. The use of any kind of recording, photographic or video equipment is strictly prohibited. Winchester Music Club is registered charity no.1095619 Bach commemorative window Thomaskirche Leipzig Janette Lloyd Welcome Winchester Music Club welcomes you to tonight’s concert: Bach’s sacred oratorio, St John Passion. This magnificent work has been performed 8 times by the Club since it was founded by Sir George Dyson in 1925, but it is over 20 years since our last performance in 1990 and so we are delighted to have the opportunity to perform it this evening, particularly in the excellent acoustic of The Harvey Hall at St Swithun’s School. We would like to thank the Headmistress, Mrs Jane Gandee, for giving Winchester Music Club permission to use the school’s Performing Arts Centre. Tonight’s conductor, our Musical Director, Nicholas Wilks, continues to be a huge inspiration to the choir. We are grateful to him for his dedication and cheerful enthusiasm helping us to strive for better and better performances. I would also like to record our thanks to Jamal Sutton and Oliver Tarney, who assist him at our rehearsals as répétiteurs. Later in the programme you will find details of our future concerts, may I draw your attention to the annual Come and Sing on May 17th. This year we will be rehearsing and then, after lunch, performing Mozart: Coronation Mass under the direction of Nicholas Wilks. It promises to be an enjoyable day and we would be delighted if you could join us either as a singer or audience. Angela Ryde-Weller, Chairman On the face of it, this evening’s performance of Bach’s St John Passion is completely inauthentic. We are singing it at higher than Baroque pitch, we are using modern instruments (with the exception of the viola da gamba and the oboe d’amore), we are not presenting the work liturgically, and we have a much larger choir than Bach envisaged with sopranos instead of trebles. But we do Bach a disservice to imagine that his music can only be performed by specialist groups. While it is true that historically-informed performances by such luminaries as John Butt, Andrew Parrott and John Eliot Gardiner have transformed our understanding of this marvellous work it is equally true that Bach’s music is at heart community music – it comes alive when it is performed by a group of committed musicians to their audience, and the fact that so many of our players and singers will have family and friends listening to them gives performances such as this a special dimension. We should not feel constrained by over-stepping the mark – something Bach himself seems to have been happy to do when he ignored the instruction by the church authorities in Leipzig to write a passion which was neither long nor operatic! Bach’s religious conviction is self- evident, but conducting the St John Passion for the first time I have been struck by its sheer humanity – Peter’s anguish at his betrayal of Christ, the portrayal of Pilate as a scrupulously fair man finding himself out of his depth in the vicious religious politics of the high priests, and the exquisite tenderness of the final chorus, Ruht wohl, perhaps the greatest lullaby ever written. Nicholas Wilks, Conductor dSccc The origin of the Passion In mediaeval times the practice of singing the gospel in church services was well established. It was found to be more effective acoustically than using mere speech. By the 14th century there were different voices playing different parts: a tenor voice played the Evangelist with a bass voice playing Jesus. An alto voice played the crowd. Later this latter part was taken by a group of singers; a chorus. Some two centuries later, Luther’s translation of the Bible from Latin meant that the Reformation congregation could now understand what was being sung. The development of instruments such as the violin and the oboe and the influence of Italian opera in the 17th century led to even more elaborate compositions. The recitative, where narrative was sung with natural speech inflections, made for a much richer commentary. However, the congregation in 1720s Leipzig was very traditional. Bach was Cantor of the school at Thomaskirche and also Director of Music there and at Nikolaikirche ( see images opposite). He was specifically enjoined not to make ‘theatrical compositions’. In nearby Halle, which was severely orthodox at this time, simple hymns were preferred. Despite these strictures, the reason for performing a Passion on Good Friday was not merely to tell the story of Jesus’s betrayal and death but also to teach its meaning. The arias and chorales, with their more complicated musical settings, offered deeper reflections and interpretations of this story. Bach was in effect preaching sermons in music. Bach’s Passions Bach may have written a passion in 1714 (before he came to Leipzig) but it is now lost. He wrote the St John Passion in 1724. The St Matthew followed in 1729. There is evidence that he wrote wrote a St Luke Passion in 1730, with a St Mark Passion following in 1731. There is no music left of the St Luke Passion. The St Mark score has not been seen since 1764. The St John Passion in Performance? This is a description of Bach leading an ensemble around 1730, written by Johann Matthias Gesner, Rector of the school at Thomaskirche in Leipzig. We could well assume that he is directing a rehearsal of the St John Passion: “... If you could see Bach running over the keys of the organ with both hands and, at the utmost speed, with his feet producing by himself the most various and at the same time agreeable combinations of sound in orderly procession .... If you could see him not only singing with one voice and playing his own part, but watching over everything and bringing back to the rhythm and the beat, out of 30 or even 40 musicians, the one with a nod, another by tapping with his foot, the third with a warning finger, giving the right notes to one from the top of his voice, to another from the greatest din made by all the participants, and although he is executing the most difficult parts himself, noticing at once whenever and wherever a mistake occurs, holding everyone together, taking precautions everywhere, and a repairing any unsteadiness, full of rhythm in every part of his body- this one man taking in all these harmonies with his keen ear and emitting with his voice alone the tone of all the voices.... The accomplishments of our Bach appear to me to effect what not many Orpheuses could achieve.” It is clear that Gesner knew that he was in the presence of a genius! © Janette Lloyd 2014 dSccc J.S. Bach St John Passion PART ONE PART ONE 1 Chorus 1 Chorus Lord, our master, whose glory fills the whole earth, Herr, unser Herrscher, dessen Ruhm in allen Landen show us by your Passion that you, the true Son of herrlich ist! Zeig uns durch deine Passion, dass du, der God, triumph even in the deepest humiliation. wahre Gottessohn, zu aller Zeit, auch in der grössten Niedrigkeit, verherrlicht worden bist. 2 Recitative 2 Recitative Evangelist Evangelist Jesus went out with his disciples, and crossed the Jesus ging mit seinen Jüngern über den Bach Kidron, Cedron ravine. There was a garden there, and he and da war ein Garten, darein ging Jesus und seine Jünger. his disciples went into it. The place was known to Judas aber, der ihn verriet, wusste den Ort auch, denn Judas, his betrayer, because Jesus had often met Jesus versammlete sich oft daselbst mit seinen Jüngern. there with his disciples. So Judas took a detachment Da nun Judas zu sich hatte genommen die Schar und der of soldiers, and police provided by the chief priests Hohenpriester und Pharisäer Diener, kommt er dahin and the Pharisees, equipped with lanterns and mit Fackeln, Lampen, und mit Waffen. Als nun Jesus weapons, and made his way to the garden. Jesus, wusste alles, was ihm begegnen sollte, ging er hinaus knowing all that was coming upon him, went out to und sprach zu ihnen: them and asked, Jesus Jesus Wen suchet ihr? Whom is it you want? Evangelist Evangelist Sie antworteten ihm: They answered, Chorus Chorus Jesum von Nazareth! Jesus of Nazareth! Evangelist Evangelist Jesus spricht zu ihnen: Jesus said Jesus Jesus Ich bin’s! I am he! Evangelist Evangelist Judas aber, der ihn verriet, stund auch bei ihnen. Als And there stood Judas the traitor with them. When nun Jesus zu ihnen sprach: Ich bin’s! Wichen sie zurücke Jesus said ‘I am he’, they drew back and fell to the und fielen zu Boden. Da fragete er sie abermal: ground. Again Jesus asked, Jesus Jesus Wen suchet ihr? Whom is it you want? Evangelist Evangelist Sie aber sprachen: They answered, Chorus Chorus Jesum von Nazareth! Jesus of Nazareth! Evangelist Evangelist Jesus antwortete: Jesus said, Jesus Jesus Ich hab’s euch gesagt, dass ich’s sei, suchet ihr denn I have told you that I am he.