Gewandhausorchester, Andreas Reize: Bach's St John Passion
About the Event
Hear the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Thomanerchor Leipzig and outstanding soloists under the baton of Andreas Reize for a captivating performance of Bach's masterwork.
The fact that people of all cultures celebrate their important festivals with music is not a coincidence, but a necessity. Music is necessary: It can turn adversity around. We need it not only to give vent to our joy, for Easter jubilation and other moments of happiness. More urgently, we need music as a comforter, as an empathic companion in times of crisis, as a source of resilience in existential anguish and in confrontation with death.
That is why Passion music occupies a central position in Christianity. Through Johann Sebastian Bach's music, Christ's Passion ignites our passion, the incomprehensible becomes poignant, and the unapproachable becomes close to us. Bach's Passion based on the Evangelist John is not suspected of being the greatest work of art of all time, like its sibling work based on St. Matthew. It does not strive for superlatives, has a smaller cast and more compact dimensions. It unfolds greatness in areas that cannot be measured. In the words of Robert Schumann: The St. John Passion is bolder, more powerful, more poetic than the St. Matthew Passion.
Practical Information
Due to its history, the Gewandhaus Orchestra stands for civic engagement in a special way. With a view to the challenges of the present and the community‐building, inspiring and transformative potential of music, it has launched a democracy initiative in 2022. On pressing issues of justice, resources, media, institutions, education, identity, resilience and faith, public and cultural figures engage in dialogue with each other, with the audience and with musical performances.
'Resonance' is the motto above the musically inspired, culturally initiated discussion of basic values, understanding of democracy and social togetherness. We invite you to join in the discussion at round tables and to experimentally explore and musically experience political, sociological, acoustic and interpersonal facets of resonance in workshops and performances. Inspired by musical artworks, we open spaces for voices of the present and for ideas that strengthen the common good — in exchange between all those who want to help shape society.
