The Stuttgart Chamber Choir and the Stuttgart Baroque Orchestra

Conductor: Frieder Bernius

16 March 2013, 7.30 pm - 10.00 pm
Bartók Béla National Concert Hall

J. S. Bach: St Matthew Passion, BWV 244

If we’re looking for an example and embodiment of the concept of a professional vocation, the mere mention of the name of Frieder Bernius tells us all we need to know. The German conductor was still a first-year academy student 44 years ago when he formed what would become one of Germany’s leading choirs. Today Frieder Bernius is an “institution” in himself – and, if there was a title of the kind that Telemann bore three centuries ago in Hamburg, then he would now hold the moniker of Stuttgart’s musical director. In addition to the Stuttgart Chamber Choir, he also founded the Stuttgart Baroque Orchestra in 1985, then in 2006 the Hofkapelle Stuttgart, which specialises in the music of the 19th century, also on period instruments. He also maintains close ties with the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart, ensuring this world-renowned conductor’s repertoire covers everything from the Renaissance to contemporary music. His recorded albums number close to a hundred, and he is equally at home with a cappella choral works and Romantic grand operas.
Geographically, however, Bernius’s vernacular is unquestionably German music, while his closest affinity among the musical genres is to oratorios. These two categories coincide in Bach’s St Matthew Passion, where the most important role is not Jesus or even Pilate, but the narrator: the evangelist who leads us through the story of Christ’s suffering. It is the narrator who carries the work and the performance as a whole, and on whom the success of a production thus largely depends. In Tilman Lichdi we welcome one of the best evangelists of our day, thus ensuring that the performance will be worthy of comparison with the most moving interpretations of the Passion ever produced.

For this concert you can buy your tickets in the Palace of Arts’ Ticket Offices, also with vacation vouchers, Edenred Ticket Culture vouchers, Sodexho Pass culture and gift vouchers, Palace of Arts gift vouchers and a SZÉP vacation card.

Prices: 3900, 5900, 7900, 9900, 12900 Ft