18/02/25
We had an absolutely wonderful concert on Sunday. Two very different pieces of music both of which spoke to the soul of everyone in the auditorium – audience, choir, soloists and orchestra were all captured by the beauty of the music.
The Schubert Mass in G Major had never been performed by the Symphony Choir before – it’s a good thing we made up for that ‘mistake’, it’s a beautiful work – and if you didn’t make it to the Linder on Sunday, or you want to hear it again, you can hear it on Easter Sunday at St. George’s Church in Parktown @ 9 o’clock as part of the Easter Sunday Service.
Rutter’s Feel the Spirit created a wonderful vibe with the mixture of numbers full of despair and agony like ‘Sometimes I feel like a motherless child’ and up-beat numbers like ‘Joshua fit the battle of Jerico’ and for good measure the audience joined the choir and orchestra for the final 22 bars of ‘Oh when the saints go marching in’ – brilliant, absolutely brilliant! Everyone left the Linder with a smile on their face and a rhythm in their body!
Yes – there’s really nothing as exciting as
LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCE!
SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCES!
Our next performance, on Good Friday, will definitely be a glorious experience too:
Johannes Sebastion Bach
St John Passion
Featuring internationally acclaimed tenor Siyabonga Maqungo
Soloists: Chris Vale – Bass, Bongani Khubeka – Bass, Brittany Smith – Soprano, Minette du Toit Pearce – Mezzo-Soprano, Bongani Mthombeni – Tenor
Good Friday 18th April 2025 @ 6 pm
Linder Auditorium, Parktown
The Phoenix Orchestra
Conducted by Richard Cock
Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including works for orchestra, solo instrumental works for cello, viola and violin; keyboard works and organ works, and choral works such as the St John Passion, St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor.
In 1723 at the age of 38 Bach succeeded to the prestigious title of Cantor at the Thomasschule. He was third choice for the job – but it was one he retained for the rest of his life. His arduous duties involved playing the organ, teaching Latin and music in the Thomasschule, writing music for the church services of both the Nicolaikirche and Thomaskirche, and directing the music and training the musicians of two further churches. All this besides, famously, fathering twenty children (six of whom, sadly, did not survive into adulthood). The music that flowed from his pen during this period includes some of the greatest spiritual music ever written: the Mass in B minor, St Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio, nearly 300 church cantatas – and the St John Passion. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.
The St John Passion is a setting of the Passion story as related in St John’s Gospel. It was first performed on Good Friday 7 April 1724 in Leipzig’s Nikolaikirche. Bach revised the work in 1725 and 1732 but it is heard most frequently today in the final version he completed in 1749.
Passion here has an archaic meaning, referring specifically to the story of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. The Passion according to St Matthew was commonly heard as the Gospel for Palm Sunday, while St John’s version was heard on Good Friday. Until the Reformation, the text had been sung in Latin to plainchant or in a capella settings. Over the next 150 years or so, this evolved into the concept of the oratorio Passion, a work which merged chorales, non-Biblical and devotional texts with gospel passages – and all sung in German. It has been said that of all Bach’s larger works, the compositional history of the St John Passion is by far the most complex. Whereas the St Matthew Passion is an almost continuous succession of narrative giving the work a more contemplative and devout character, the St John Passion has a rag-bag of a text, drawing on Chapters 18 and19 of St John’s Gospel (in the translation of Martin Luther), two short interpolations from St Matthew’s Gospel, extracts from Psalm 8, chorale verses, and Passion poetry from various authors.
This is your opportunity to experience one of the greatest works of the Baroque period.
Book now to avoid disappointment – use this link
https://www.quicket.co.za/events/302060-bach-st-john-passion/