The Project The Matthew Passion
| A Boy Called Alex: The Concert |
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A BOY CALLED ALEX: THE CONCERT was broadcast in the UK on
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Watch it online: here.
Featuring:
- The Rodolfus Choir
The Rodolfus Choir is made up of singers aged 25 and younger who have been chosen from past and present members of the Eton College Choral Courses for prospective choral scholars. They have recorded many CDs including an upcoming compilation of works by Herbert Howells.
(Become a fan of Rodolfus on Facebook.)
- Ralph Allwood (Assistant Conductor)
Currently Precentor and Director of Music at Eton College, he is also the Musical Director and Founder of the Eton Choral Courses, the Rodolfus Choir and a number of other choral ensembles.
(Become a fan of Ralph Allwood on Facebook.) - Southbank Sinfonia
An orchestra of young professionals founded in 2002 and now established as Britain's leading orchestral academy. Every year a new orchestra is selected from music conservatoire graduates, each member supported by bursary.
Alex conducted Bach's St Matthew Passion on 5th April 2009 in the Cadogan Hall. The remarkable performance, with the Rodolfus Choir, Southbank Sinfonia and a world-class collection of soloists, was broadcast on More4 in the UK on the 8th October 2009.
Here is some more information about the piece:
The St Matthew Passion
The St Matthew Passion is a musical composition written by Johann Sebastian Bach for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici). It sets chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew to music, with interspersed chorales and arias.
It was written in 1727. Only two of the four settings of the Passion which Bach wrote have survived; the other is the St John Passion. The Matthew Passion was probably first performed on Good Friday (11th April) 1727 in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, where Bach was the Kapellmeister. He revised it by 1736, performing it again on March 30, 1736, this time including two organs in the instrumentation.
It was not heard outside of Leipzig until 1829, when Felix Mendelssohn performed an abbreviated and modified version of it in Berlin to great acclaim. Mendelssohn's revival of the piece brought the music of Bach, particularly the large-scale works, to a public and scholarly attention that has persisted into the present era. Sims Reeves claimed that he had sung the tenor music in the first complete performance of the work in England, at St James's Hall under William Sterndale Bennett, in around 1864 with Helen Lemmens-Sherrington, Charlotte Sainton-Dolby and Willoughby Weiss as the other soloists.
This article uses material from Wikipedia.