The Bach Choir Of Bethlehem to Present World Premiere Of Mendelssohn's Rendition Of Bach's Saint Matthew Passion

The Bach Choir of Bethlehem will present a ground-breaking world premiere of Mendelssohn's interpretation of the Saint Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach on Saturday afternoon, November 4, 2023, 3 p.m. at Packer Memorial Chapel at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The premiere represents five years of scholarship by noted musicologist Malcolm Bruno, who has meticulously reconstructed Mendelssohn's revision of Bach's monumental work. Artistic Director and Conductor Christopher Jackson leads the Choir, the Bach Festival Orchestra, and distinguished international soloists for this special 2023 Gala Concert. The performance coincides with the publication of this new edition by Bärenreiter, the world's most respected classical music publisher. A live recording release will follow on Analekta in spring 2024.

Please visit Bach Choir of Bethlehem's website to purchase premium tickets ($75 - $100); general seating ($50); student tickets with ID ($9). Gala Benefactors will attend a special dinner and fundraiser at Saucon Valley Country Club; these tickets are available for purchase by calling 610.866.4382 ext. 110.

The British/American musicologist Malcolm Bruno, who lives in Wales and was recently visiting scholar at Princeton University, has reconstructed and edited a number of major choral works for the two most venerated music publishers Breitkopf & Härtel and Bärenreiter Verlag both in Germany. He has produced many recordings for major labels specializing in baroque and choral repertoire, initially as Associate Director of the Taverner Consort and Players, and then as a series independent-producer for BBC Radio 3 and Public Radio International in the USA. Dr Bruno personally chose The Bach Choir of Bethlehem to give the world premiere of his newly edited Mendelssohn/Bach Saint Matthew Passion.

"This is a perfect 'Bach' symphonic choir, the sort of which Mendelssohn might only have dreamt but never experienced in his lifetime," says Dr Bruno, adding, "As a concert piece, Mendelssohn thought the Passion was too long. Envisaging the Passion as a sacred work for concert performance, Mendelssohn felt free to heighten the drama by removing some of the arias and recitative that were originally necessitated in Bach's more traditional liturgical Passiontide performances. By trimming the narrative of some of its less dramatic text the duration is slimmed down to nearly two hours on the dot, which is an hour shorter than the original, but very similar in length to the St John Passion.

"As a genius teenage composer Mendelssohn was besotted by Bach's music as he studied it on the page and he wanted everyone to hear what he could only imagine," says Dr. Bruno. "Thus, in 1829 at the age of 19 Mendelssohn mounted the first performance of the great Passion in Berlin's Singakademie. It was the first since Bach's death, some 80 years earlier. He was confronted not only with the challenges of an unknown work of great complexity, but with the need to modify Bach's original orchestration. He had also the task of training a large amateur choir in Bach's difficult contrapuntal style. Such large choral forces, first appearing in the early 19th-century and unknown in Bach's time, were a part of social change and in large part spurred on by the huge choir assembled for London's Messiah celebrations in 1784, marking the centenary of Handel's birth.

Mendelssohn's love of Bach continued as he moved to Leipzig a decade after the Berlin premiere in 1829, in his position as music director of the Gewandhaus orchestra. As part of a year-long festival in 1840-41 in Bach's St Thomas church, Mendelssohn once again revisited his Passion score and, on Palm Sunday 1841 conducted the Passion again. Reconsidering his earlier performance ideas, he re-instated some of the cut arias and revised the string parts, bringing them into the sound world of his violin concerto or indeed his Elijah, written only 5 years later. Mendelssohn's tragically early death in 1847 preempted any further performance of the Passion, and one can only imagine what subsequent opportunities might have stimulated in his imagination (and orchestration)!'

Artistic Director and Conductor Christopher Jackson considers the Saint Matthew Passion one of the three pieces that a conductor must perform in his lifetime and is particularly honored to be giving the world premiere of this new version. Maestro Jackson has intentionally elected to record the Passion live, honing in on its dramatic dimension. "There is no comparison between making a studio recording and conducting this monumental work in the presence of an engaged audience. A live recording may entail taking some risks, but the emotional and musical rewards are far greater."

The oldest American Bach Choir, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem gave the first complete American performances of Bach's Mass in B Minor in 1900 and Christmas Oratorio in 1901. Since its founding in 1898, the internationally renowned Choir has been attracting thousands of visitors from across the United States and beyond to the annual Bethlehem Bach Festival in Pennsylvania. The 95 dedicated volunteer singers of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Bach Festival Orchestra, and well-known soloists perform 40 concerts and educational programs annually for an audience of more than 22,000. Important international concert venues The Bach Choir has visited include Herkulessaal at Munich's Royal Residence and Bach's church in Leipzig, the Thomaskirche; The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall as part of The Choir's Centennial Celebration in 1998-2000; the BBC Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall for an eight-concert tour of the United Kingdom in 2003; and Severance Hall, Cleveland, for the 75th anniversary of the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival in 2007. In September 2011, The Bach Choir represented the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a 10th anniversary musical observance of 9/11 in New York City, giving concerts in Saint Paul's Chapel and Trinity Church, Wall Street. In 2013, The Choir performed Mendelssohn's Elijah at Strathmore in the Washington D.C. area, and in 2014, the new opera Young Meister Bach for the 250th anniversary of the German Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The Choir has released 11 recordings to date on the Dorian and Analekta labels including, most recently, Bach's Cantata 21 (2018), Handel's Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day (2018), A Child's Christmas in Bethlehem (2013), and Saint John Passion (2012). The Choir has been featured on National Public Radio's Performance Today and Prairie Home Companion, Deutsche Radio, the BBC World Service, CBS Sunday Morning, and the Emmy award-winning PBS documentary "Make a Joyful Noise." It has been recognized for its outstanding educational outreach programs (Bach at Noon, Bach to School, and interdisciplinary Family Concerts) by annual awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (2011-2019). The J.S. Bach Foundation in Switzerland named The Bach Choir of Bethlehem as the first American recipient of its annual award to a single Bach organization, recognizing The Bach Choir's outstanding work in Bach performance and education for young people (2012). "Mr. Bach Comes to Call," a film based on the acclaimed Classical Kids CD, was co-produced by The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and is distributed internationally by the Children's Group.

The Bel Canto Youth Chorus is The Bach Choir's youth choir educational program under the direction of Director Kelly Rocchi. Through Bel Canto and other educational programs, The Bach Choir is training the next generation of choral singers and cultivating a life-long passion for the choral arts.

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