Pasión según San Mateo

Three hundred years after its premiere in Leipzig, in 1727, the Passion according to Saint Matthew remains one of the most monumental and moving works of Johann Sebastian Bach. The tricentenary holds special significance at the Palau de la Música Catalana, due to the long tradition of Passions and the historical link of the Orfeó Català with this repertoire. In a season proposing three Passions for this anniversary, this production recovers a reading that has become almost canonical, that of Simon Rattle, who fifteen years ago conducted it with the Berliner Philharmoniker in the iconic dramatised version by Peter Sellars. Without altering a single note of the score, that proposal revealed the full humanity of the narrative, from sobriety and deep respect for the work. Now Rattle, one of the most influential batons of recent decades, recovers this perspective alongside the Freiburger Barockorchester and the Zürcher Sing-Akademie, with an artistic team that places this interpretation among the season's major highlights. The story of Christ's last hours, which Bach turned into an extraordinary synthesis of drama, spirituality and emotion, comes to life with Reinoud van Mechelen as Evangelist and Tomáš Král as Jesus, alongside Miriam Feuersinger, Magdalena Kožená and Roderick Williams. Also joining is the Cor Infantil de l'Orfeó Català, which assumes one of the season's great challenges and incorporates some of the house's youngest voices into this tradition.