Three hundred years after its premiere in Leipzig in 1727, the St Matthew Passion remains one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most monumental and moving works. The tercentenary takes on special significance at the Palau de la Música Catalana, given its long tradition of performing the Passions and the Orfeó Català’s historic connection with this repertoire. In a season featuring three Passions to mark this anniversary, this performance revisits an interpretation that has become almost canonical: that of Simon Rattle, who fifteen years ago conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker in Peter Sellars’s iconic staged version. Without altering a single note of the score, that production revealed the full humanity of the narrative through its restraint and profound respect for the work.
Now Rattle, one of the most influential conductors of recent decades, returns to this vision alongside the Freiburger Barockorchester and the Zürcher Sing-Akademie, with an artistic team that makes this performance one of the major highlights of the season. The story of Christ’s final hours, which Bach transformed into an extraordinary synthesis of drama, spirituality and emotion, comes to life with Reinoud van Mechelen as the Evangelist and Tomáš Král as Jesus, alongside Miriam Feuersinger, Magdalena Kožená and Roderick Williams. They are joined by the Cor Infantil de l’Orfeó Català, which takes on one of the season’s major challenges and brings some of the Palau’s youngest voices into this tradition.
