2019 Closing Concert: Bach’s St John Passion
** Tickets are no longer available to buy online, but there will be tickets available on the door half an hour before the concert starts – payment either by cash or cheque **
Time & Date:
3pm, Monday 27 May 2019
Venue:
Priory Church of St George, Church Street, Dunster, TA24 6SH
Who:
The Marian Consort | Rory McCleery, Director
Nicholas Mulroy | Evangelist
Matthew Brook | Christus
Ticket Prices:
£25 / £20 / £15
Running Time:
Two hours twenty minutes (including interval)
Programme Info:
St John Passion (1725) | J S Bach (1685 – 1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion is one of the greatest works not only of Baroque music, but of the whole Western Classical tradition. An extraordinary narrative journey, it tells the story of Jesus’ passion and crucifixion through a series of musical forms which were entirely revolutionary in their ability to communicate with listeners in the eighteenth century, and which still have the power to speak to us with uncanny emotional directness today.
Written for the 1724 Good Friday liturgy in Leipzig, such was the St John Passion’s impact and success that it was performed again the following year. This 1725 version, which here receives its West Somerset premiere, includes a number of changes and additions, notably the exquisite Chorale Fantasias which begin and end the Passion.
Performed by the Gramophone Award-nominated singers of The Marian Consort and a hand-picked orchestra of some of the UK’s leading baroque instrumentalists, with Nicholas Mulroy (‘the most sought-after evangelist of his generation’ Sydney Morning Herald) as Evangelist and Matthew Brook (‘Matthew Brook, who turns anything he sings to gold’ The Guardian) as Christus, this is sure to be a memorable and moving finale to our 2019 Festival.
Artist Biographies
The Marian Consort
Taking its name from the Blessed Virgin Mary, a focus of religious devotion in the sacred music of all ages, The Marian Consort is a Gramophone Award-nominated and internationally-renowned early music vocal ensemble, recognised for its dynamic freshness of approach and innovative presentation of a broad range of repertoire. Under its founder and director, Rory McCleery, this ‘astounding’ ensemble has given concerts throughout the UK and Europe, features regularly on BBC Radio 3, and is a former ‘Young Artist’ of The Brighton Early Music Festival.
Known for its engaging performances and imaginative programming, the group draws its members from amongst the very best young singers on the early music scene today. They normally sing one to a part (dependent on the repertoire), with smaller vocal forces allowing clarity of texture and subtlety and flexibility of interpretation that illuminate the music for performer and audience alike.
Their repertoire encompasses the music of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries with a particular focus on the exploration of lesser-known works, often bringing these to the attention of the wider public for the first time. The Marian Consort is also a proud exponent of contemporary music, juxtaposing latter-day pieces and Renaissance works in concert in order to shed new light on both. As part of this commitment to new music, the group has commissioned and recorded works by leading British choral composers including Cecilia McDowall, Matthew Martin, Gabriel Jackson and Cheryl Frances-Hoad.
The Marian Consort is also committed to inspiring a love of singing in others, and leads participatory educational workshops for a wide range of ages and abilities. The Marian Consort often collaborates in performance and recording with a variety of vocal and instrumental ensembles: recent project partners have included the Carducci Quartet; the Choir of Merton College, Oxford; the Berkeley Ensemble; the Rose Consort of Viols; {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna; and Ludus Baroque in repertoire ranging from Byrd, Parsons, Bach and Handel to Arvo Pärt and Michael Berkeley.
The Marian Consort performs extensively across the UK and Europe, and has recently returned from an inaugural tour of the USA and Canada. Other recent concert highlights include performances in the Bascule Chamber underneath London’s Tower Bridge for the Thames Festival; a debut performance in Estonia at the 24th Kuressaare Chamber Music Days; a residency at the Cambridge Early Music Festival; a collaborative concert of Handel, Dowland and Purcell with {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna as part of the Misteria Paschalia Festival, broadcast on Polish National Radio; and an ongoing tour throughout the UK in celebration of the group’s tenth anniversary.
The Marian Consort has to date released ten CDs with Delphian Records, all of which have met with considerable critical acclaim. Their discs have been praised for ‘performances that glow with golden purity and soul’, ‘precision and pellucid textures’, ‘impeccable polish and blend’ and for ‘drawing the listener in by quiet persuasion and musical intelligence of the highest order’. Their latest disc, In Sorrow’s Footsteps, featuring the world premiere recording of a major new setting of the Stabat Mater by Gabriel Jackson, has received several five-star reviews, with Gramophone Magazine commenting that ‘carefully paced and shaped by the group’s director Rory McCleery, this feels like a modern classic in the making, sensitive and endlessly responsive to the text.’
Plans for 2019 include revival performances of ‘Breaking the Rules’ at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and for festivals in London, Bristol and West Somerset; Mozart Requiem with {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna in Warsaw; concerts in Granada and Zamora; and a recital at the Holy Week Festival at St John’s Smith Square. The Marian Consort is directed by Rory McCleery, a freelance choral conductor, singer and academic.
Nicholas Mulroy
Born in Liverpool, Nicholas Mulroy studied at Clare College Cambridge and Royal Academy of Music.
He regularly appears with leading ensembles throughout Europe, including Monteverdi Choir with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Le Musiciens du Louvre with Marc Minkowski, Les concerts d’Astrée with Emmanuelle Haïm, Gabrieli Consort with Paul McCreesh as well as concerts with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Koelner Akademie, Dunedin Consort, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Proms, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Wroclaw Philharmonic and Spitalfields Festival. Other conductors he has worked with include Laurence Cummings, Trevor Pinnock, Sir Colin Davis and Nicholas Kraemer.
On stage he has worked with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and on Tour, Opéra Comique Paris, Théâtre Capitole de Toulouse and at the Opéra de Lille.
Recordings include a Gramophone Award-winning Messiah with Dunedin Consort on Linn, and releases with Exaudi on NMC, King’s Consort on Hyperion and I Fagiolini on Chandos. He recently featured on two versions of the St John Passion singing the arias for Stephen Layton/Polyphony on Hyperion and Evangelist and arias for John Butt/Dunedin Consort on Linn.
‘He is ‘the most sought-after evangelist of his generation’. It is a big call, but to hear him sing there is no doubt’ (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Matthew Brook
Matthew Brook leapt to fame with his 2007 Gramophone Award-winning recording of Handel’s Messiah with the Dunedin Consort, followed by equally critically acclaimed recordings of Acis and Galatea and St Matthew Passion. He has appeared as a soloist throughout Europe, Australia, North and South America and the Far East, and has worked with many of the world’s leading conductors. He is now considered one of the finest singers of his generation.
Recent and future highlights include Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Dido and Aeneas with the Handel and Haydn Society, Bach’s St John Passion with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Haydn’s Creation with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s Magnificat and Brahms’ Triumphlied with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Il Re di Scozia Ariodante with the Staatstheater Stuttgart and on tour with the English Concert, Bach’s B minor Mass at the Al Bustan Festival in Beirut and with Les Violons du Roy in Québec, Fauré’s Requiem with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, a tour of Bach cantatas with the Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, a tour of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the roles of Herod and Father in Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis.