St. John’s Passion: Auditorio Nacional de Música

About the Event

The Passion according to St. John was composed for the Good Friday Vespers service of 1724 and carried out in the church of St. Nicholas of which Bach was also musical director. Until then, a sound monument of such dimensions and with such a degree of rhetorical materialization in relation to the account of the Passion of Christ had never been conceived. The composer's ability to achieve a maximum fusion of music, dramatic narration and exegesis of the gospel reached a peak within the Protestant sacred music never imagined before. From this work, Bach's first Passion on Good Friday would become the expected musical peak of the liturgical year.

Les Arts Florissants is one of the most important baroque music formations in the world. William Christie dreamt of this ensemble whose name refers to a brief opera by Charpentier, in 1979 and since then, the ensemble has transported those attending its concerts back to the 17th and 18th centuries.