THE ST. MATTHEW PASSION
Johann Sebastian Bach will forever be known as one of the true giants of music history, and the St. Matthew Passion is one of his most profoundly moving masterpieces. In this performance, we’ll hear baritone Peter Mattei among the other world-famous soloists.
It is unclear how many times Johann Sebastian Bach composed the Passions, the gospel accounts of Jesus’s suffering and death. Unfortunately, only two have been preserved: The St. John’s Passion, premièred in 1724, and the St. Matthew Passion, probably premièred the same year it was written, in 1727. The place was of course the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, where Bach had been the cantor since 1723.
The St. Matthew Passion is one of music history’s most titanic masterpieces, strongly contributing to Bach’s nickname as “the fifth evangelist” or “God’s musician”. However, such romantic euphemisms do not seem to conform with the composer’s self-image. The Gospel of Matthew is much more comprehensive and detailed in its story of Jesus on the cross than that of John the Evangelist, which is also reflected in the latter’s work. The St. Matthew Passion is on a grander scale, composed for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra. Conveniently, the St. Thomas Church had double organ lofts of different sizes.
The text consists of chapters 26 and 27 in the Gospel according to Matthew of the Lutheran Bible, but there are also glimpses of the Song of Songs. In addition, there are arias and hymns, the latter by various authors and selected by Bach himself. The librettist was Picander, the pseudonym of Christian Friedrich Henrici, with a reputation as a rather minor master. This text is considered his foremost achievement, probably written in close collaboration with the composer. The central figure is the Evangelist who drives the narrative forward, while other song soloists give voice to the various participants of the drama.
Bach’s notes from 1729 about his experience of what had previously been assumed to be the première, indicate certain artistic shortcomings. On Good Friday that same year, there was another Passion, by Gottfried Frober, who was drawing the crowds. Even back then, it was difficult to choose between all the cultural events on offer. Leipzig is also said to have been a conservative city from a musical perspective. A description from 1732 of what is probably Bach’s St. Matthew Passion speaks of tremendous confusion, with comments like “God preserve us, my children! it’s like a comic opera”. Probably not a common reaction today.
In 1829, the celebrated, twenty-year-old Felix Mendelssohn staged a successful revival of the, then rather forgotten, masterpiece in a performance in Berlin. It was the first time the work had been played outside Leipzig and the interest in Bach’s entire oeuvre was instantaneously reignited. A gift to the young Felix Mendelssohn a few years earlier from his grandmother, the score of the St. Matthew Passion, had truly borne fruit!
Text: Gunnar Lanzky-Otto
Participants
The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra is a multiple-award-winning ensemble renowned for its high artistic standard and stylistic breadth, as well as collaborations with the world’s finest composers, conductors, and soloists. It regularly tours all over Europe and the world and has an extensive and acclaimed recording catalogue.
Daniel Harding has been Music Director of the SRSO since 2007, and since 2019 also its Artistic Director. His tenure will last throughout the 2024/2025 season. Two of the orchestra’s former chief conductors, Herbert Blomstedt and Esa-Pekka Salonen, have since been named Conductors Laureate, and continue to perform regularly with the orchestra.
The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra performs at Berwaldhallen, concert hall of the Swedish Radio, and is a cornerstone of Swedish public service broadcasting. Its concerts are heard weekly on the Swedish classical radio P2 and regularly on national public television SVT. Several concerts are also streamed on-demand on Berwaldhallen Play and broadcast globally through the EBU.
Malin Broman is the first concertmaster of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2008. She served as artistic director of Musica Vitae in 2015–2020, premiering over 20 works and touring and recording extensively. In 2019, she succeeded Sakari Oramo as artistic director of the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra.
As a guest leader, she has been invited to perform with ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra. As combined soloist and leader she has performed with the Tapiola Sinfonietta, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Trondheim Soloists and ACO Collective. Soloist highlights include performances with the Gothenburg Symphony, Copenhagen Phil, BBC Scottish Symphony, Academy of St Martin-in-the Fields, and the Swedish Radio Orchestra, working with such conductors as Neeme Järvi, Andrew Manze and Daniel Harding.
In recent years, she has premiered concertos by Daniel Börtz, Britta Byström, Andrea Tarrodi and Daniel Nelson. She has recorded over 30 albums, including concertos by Carl Nielsen and Britta Byström. Recent releases include an album with music by Laura Netzel, and Stockholm Diary with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. Her recording of Mendelssohn’s double concerto together with pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips and Musica Vitae was Grammy nominated in 2019.
She received much acclaim for her recording of Felix Mendelssohn’s string octet in the spring of 2020, where she played all eight parts herself. She has since made two similar recordings: Britta Byström’s octet A Room of One’s Own, and Johan Halvorsens Passacaglia recorded with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s solo contrabassist Rick Stotijn.
In 2001, she founded the Change Music Festival in Kungsbacka. She is also co-founder of Kungsbacka Piano Trio, with which she had played more than 700 concerts all ove the world, and of Stockholm Syndrome Ensemble which is made up of some of Europe’s most brilliant chamber musicians.
In 2008, Malin was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The Kungsbacka Piano Trio has received the prestigious Interpret Prize of the Royal Academy of Music. In 2019, she was awarded H.M. The King’s Medal. She is currently Professor of Viola at Edsberg Institute of Music in Stockholm. She plays a 1709 Stradivarius violin and a 1861 Bajoni viola, both generously loaned by the Järnåker Foundation.
32 professional choristers make up the Swedish Radio Choir: a unique, dynamic instrument hailed by music-lovers and critics all over the world. The Swedish Radio Choir performs at Berwaldhallen, concert hall of the Swedish Radio, as well as on tours all over the country and the world. Also, they are heard regularly by millions of listeners on Swedish Radio P2, Berwaldhallen Play and globally through the EBU.
The award-winning Latvian conductor Kaspars Putniņš was appointed Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir in 2020. Since January 2019, its choirmaster is French orchestral and choral conductor Marc Korovitch, with responsibility for the choir’s vocal development.
The Swedish Radio Choir was founded in 1925, the same year as Sweden’s inaugural radio broadcasts, and gave its first concert in May that year. Multiple acclaimed and award-winning albums can be found in the choir’s record catalogue. Late 2023 saw the release of Kaspars Putniņš first album with the choir: Robert Schumann’s Missa sacra, recorded with organist Johan Hammarström.
Marc Korovitch studied at the Sorbonne, the École Normale de Musique in Paris, and the Haute École de Musique in Geneva. Among his mentors were Denis Rouger, Celso Antunes, Michael Gläser, Dominique Rouits, and Colin Metters.
He is regularly invited by various choirs, including ACCENTUS, the Radio France Choir, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, the Croatian Radio Choir, the NDR Chor, the Europa Chor Akademie, the WDR Chor, the English Voices, the Community of Madrid Choir, the Serbian Radio Choir, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, and the Netherlands Radio Choir.
Korovitch is the youngest conductor to have conducted the Concerto Köln in Germany and on tour in Italy and Poland. He frequently conducts the Hague Chamber Orchestra, the Zagreb Baroque Orchestra, the Berliner Sinfonietta, the Croatian Radio and Television Orchestra, the Montpellier National Orchestra, and the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra RTVE.
He collaborates with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Herbert Blomstedt, Klaus Mäkelä, Daniel Harding, Lahav Shani, Gustavo Dudamel, Alan Gilbert, Philippe Jordan, Louis Langrée, Leonardo García Alarcón, Laurence Equilbey, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Jaap van Zweden in halls such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Theater an der Wien, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Lincoln Center in New York, Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, the National Auditorium of Music in Madrid, the Tokyo Opera City, and during major festivals such as the Radio-France festival in Montpellier, the Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm, and the Mostly Mozart festival in New York.
He was conductor of the Jeune Chœur de Paris from 2017 to 2024 and principal conductor of the Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris between 2022 and 2023. In 2019, he was appointed choir master of the Swedish Radio Choir, chief conductor of the Orchestre Colonne in september 2022, of the Montenegro Symphony Orchestra in 2023, and of the Spanish Radio and Television Choir RTVE in 2024.
Passionate about teaching, Korovitch was a professor of choir conducting at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris and at the Pôle Supérieur Paris Boulogne Billancourt for seven years.
Alan Gilbert är musikchef och hovkapellmästare på Kungliga Operan och chefsdirigent för NDR Elbfilharmonins Orkester i Hamburg. Dessutom är han förste gästdirigent för Tokyo Metropolitan Symfoniorkester och hedersdirigent för Kungliga Filharmonikerna, vilka han var chefsdirigent för 2000–2008.
På Kungliga Operan leder han säsongen 2023/24 uppsättningar av Strauss Elektra och Wagners Parsifal. Med Berlinfilharmonikerna kommer han denna säsong att tolka Arthur Honeggers oratorium Jeanne d’Arc på bålet. Med Elbfilharmonins Orkester kommer han bland annat uruppföra The Elements, en violinkonsert samskriven av fem tonsättare, med Joshua Bell som solist. Förra säsongen uruppförde Gilbert och orkestern ett beställningsverk av Lisa Streich som en del av Elbphilharmonie Visions, en nyinstiftad festivalbiennal som uppmärksammar den samtida musiken.
Som gästdirigent har han arbetat med bland andra Berlinerfilharmonikerna, Bostons Symfoniorkester, Gewandhausorkestern i Leipzig, Londons Symfoniorkester och Concertgebouworkestern i Amsterdam. Han har dirigerat operauppsättningar på Metropolitan och operahusen i Los Angeles, Zürich och Santa Fe. Nyligen gjorde han sin första scenproduktion på La Scala i Milano: en nyuppsättning av Gershwins Porgy and Bess; han debuterade på Dresden Semperoper med Schönbergs Moses und Aron; och han ledde Mahler Chamber Orchestra i George Benjamins Written on Skin på New York Philharmonic Opera. Han har tidigare varit musikchef för Santa Fe-operan och chefsdirigent för New Yorks Filharmoniker.
Alan Gilbert har gjort ett stort antal musik- och operainspelningar, varav flera belönats med prestigefyllda utmärkelser och hyllats av kritiker och lyssnare. 2005 valdes han in i Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien, 2014 valdes han in i American Academy of Arts & Sciences och samma år nominerades han till Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres av den franska regeringen.
The bass barytone Shenyang was born in Tianjin in China and studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He has played the title role in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and at the Metropolitan Opera he played Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Garibaldo in Handel’s Rodelinda and Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème. He has also performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In 2010, he premièred Xiaogang Ye’s Song of Farewell, which was written for him, with China’s National Symphony Orchestra. The same year, he won the Montblanc New Voices Award at the Stars of the White Nights Festival.
Christina Landshamer is a much sought-after concert and opera singer. She has performed with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Roger Norrington and Ricardo Chailly, as well as with some of Europe’s most renowned orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and the Orchestre de Paris, as well as North American ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal. Recently she performed in Britten’s Les Illuminations and Mozart’s Requiem as well as on tour with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.
The Swedish mezzo-soprano Kristina Hammarström is a much sought-after concert and opera singer and she regularly appears in opera houses, concert halls and festivals throughout Europe and Asia. Assignments in 2019/2020 included Caino in Scarlatti’s Il primo Omicidio at Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Opéra National de Paris and Concertgebouw. She also sang Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina at the Salzburg Festival, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and did concerts in Copenhagen with music by Wilhelmine of Prussia and Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
Hammarström’s operatic repertoire includes an impressive number of roles in baroque operas as well as Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther, Octavian in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, Arsace in Rossini’s Semiramide, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Marguerite in Berlioz’ La damnation de Faust, Cherubino in Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro – a role in which she made her Paris Opera debut – Cecilio in Lucio Silla, the title role in Ascanio in Alba and Idamante in Idomeneo, just to mention a few. Her concert repertoire includes pieces as Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, Rückertlieder, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Das Lied von der Erde, Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 9, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, as well as a large number of masses and oratorios.
The Evangelist
The tenor Andrew Staples is a diligent concert singer who has performed with conductors such as Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Andrew Manze and Robin Ticciati. Most recently, he has played Froh in Wagner’s Das Rheingold at the Royal Opera House in London. He also toured Europe with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Simon Rattle, performing Bach’s St John’s Passion, as well as with the Orchestre de Paris and Daniel Harding, performing Britten’s War Requiem. In addition, he will soon debut at both Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and the Metropolitan Opera. Andrew Staples is also a frequent guest at Berwaldhallen where he will be performing several times during the season of 2019-2020.
The versatile tenor Nicholas Phan has appeared at the Los Angeles Opera, Glyndebourne, Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Maggio Musicale in Florence with leading roles in Bernstein’s Candide and Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, as well as Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff in his repertoire. Recently he debuted as Eumolpos in Stravinsky’s Perséphone and played the lead in Handel’s Jephtha. In addition, he has performed Antonie Plante’s orchestral arrangement of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. As a dedicated concert singer, he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago in 2010, the aim of which is to promote and raise awareness of romances, lieder and vocal chamber music. He is Artistic Director of the CAIC.
In the winter of 2020, baritone Peter Mattei sang his first Wozzeck, the title role of Alban Berg’s opera, at the Metropolitan in New York. In January, 2020, he also performed Schubert’s Winterreise with pianist Lars-David Nilsson at Carnegie Hall in New York. Last season, the same duo went on an acclaimed Nordic concert tour with Winterreise, which led to an album recording as well as a TV version for SVT.
During 2020, Peter also appeared in the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at both the Metropolitan, and at Wiener Staatsoper. The role gave him his international breakthrough in Peter Brooks’ production at Aix-en-Provence, and remains one of his favourite roles. He has since performed it at prominent venues, such as the Royal Swedish Opera, the Scottish Opera, the Opéra National de Paris, and the Teatro alla Scala.
Peter made a sensational debut performance as Amfortas in Wagner’s Parsifal at the Metropolitan in the spring of 2013. The following season, he saw yet another success as Wolfram in Tannhäuser at Staatsoper Berlin. Among his many other roles are the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, the title role of Billy Budd, Don Fernando in Fidelio, and Pentheus in Daniel Börtz’ The Bacchae, directed by Ingmar Bergman at the Royal Swedish Opera.
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