Pasión según san Mateo de Bach

Of the three Passions according to St Matthew that the Palau de la Música Catalana presents this season, this will undoubtedly be the most unpredictable. Teodor Currentzis approaches one of Bach's masterpieces with an unknown that is, in itself, an attraction: it cannot be predicted where his interpretation will go. It could be a heterodox reading, breaking molds and exciting his followers, perhaps even resulting in sacrilege for the most purists. What is certain is that it will not leave anyone indifferent. Also known as the enfant terrible of conducting, he is no longer an enfant, but a fully consecrated conductor who has not lost the ability to question interpretive conventions. From the account of the passion and death of Christ according to the Gospel of Matthew, Bach constructs in the Passion according to St Matthew a work of extraordinary musical, dramatic and spiritual dimension, written for a large deployment of voices and instruments. Currentzis presents it at the front of Utopia Orchestra & Choir, his European formation, with the participation also of the Cor Infantil de l'Orfeó Català. The Passion according to St Matthew occupies a particularly significant place in the history of the Palau and of the Orfeó Català. In 1921, the Orfeó staged its first audition in the Palau, with Albert Schweitzer at the organ, initiating a link that has been maintained for more than a century. Coinciding with the 300 years of its premiere in Leipzig in 1727, the Palau returns this season to the work with three very different approaches, reaffirming its central place in its musical tradition.