THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2019-2020 65
Program Notes
Ask classically trained musicians to name a
composer they always return to, and the answer
will often be Bach. Yes, he’s been dead and buried
for 270 years, but his creations resonate, in the
words of the Bach scholar Christoph Wolff, as
“true ideals and imperishable models of art.’’
From the breathtaking spirit of his masses,
passions and cantatas to the contrapuntal puzzles
of his fantasies and fugues, Bach achieved a
level of consistency that defies lumping his
life’s work into early, middle and late periods. A
seriousness of purpose underlines everything
he composed – he lived for the “glory of God
and refreshment of the soul’’ – spanning the
grandiose creations for chorus and orchestra to
the simplest utterance for a single instrument.
This weekend, one of those grand creations comes
to life as TFO and The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay
offer their first-ever performances together of the
Passion According to St. John. Bach has a special
place in the choir’s 40-year history: It was the first
major work performed by the soon-to-be-formed
Master Chorale, in 1979, at a gym on the University of
South Florida campus. Robert Summer, the choir’s
founder, led a group of 65 singers and members of
the USF Orchestra. Four high school choirs sang the
chorales and listeners sat on creaky bleachers.
Then in 2004, the Master Chorale as we know it
today performed the Passion under music director
Richard Zielinski at churches in Tampa and St.
Petersburg. This weekend will be TFO’s first
performance of the work.
“This is a piece I’ve been wanting to conduct all
my life,’’ said TFO Music Director Michael Francis.
“And it completes the Easter season, so it’s a great
time to reflect on this wonderful music. It has this
operatic sense of drama, but it’s within a glorious,
controlled maturity.’’
Composed in 1723, the Passion blends the despair
of Christ’s death with the faith of his triumph. It
represents a high point among settings of the
German Gospel Passion, notably for the subjective
treatment of the text and four-part harmonies
considered radical at the time. The story unfolds
through an evangelist narrator, with various
characters fleshing out the action in the style
of an oratorio, and the chorus offering glorious
commentary. The work has moments of dramatic
theater and a disquieting mysticism in its depiction
of Christ’s suffering.
Performing the Passion – from the Latin patior, “I
suffer’’ – is a challenge for any group. Depicting
Christ’s misery in two hours of music, it must be
both intense and meditative, with instruments
and voices carefully interwoven. While the soaring
choruses of Bach’s Passion According to St. Matthew
attest to its popularity, the less frequently heard
St. John paints Christ’s final days in strokes both
painful and severe. Emotion is laid bare.
Bach revised the Passion four times, including an
overhaul of the entire score, in part because he drew
text from different sources and had to deal with
persnickety church officials. But the changes reflect
“a degree of continuing freshness, originality, and
experimental radiance that make the work stand
out,’’ notes Wolff in his book Johann Sebastian
Bach: The Learned Musician.
Cast in two sections, the music opens like a ghost
ascending: turbulent semiquavers in the strings, a
nervous pulse in the bass, and a lament of rising
oboes and flutes. The effect – Bach’s miracle of
blending grief and hope – is chilling, and sets the
tone for the entire piece.
Suddenly, the chorus enters with a monumental
outburst, Oh Lord, Our Ruler, an affirmation of
Christ as the redeemer. Throughout the Passion,
Bach creates a series of musical layers that show
his genius for combinations of instruments,
textures and colors. Memorable sections include
the eloquent aria From the shackles of my vices; the
chorus Art thou not one of his disciples?; the alarming
chorus Crucify him!; the spacious Within my heart’s
recesses; the dramatic semi-fugue of the Let us not
rend it chorus; and a comforting petition for peace
and rest that concludes this magnificent work.
Program notes © 2020 by Kurt Loft, a freelance writer
and former music critic for The Tampa Tribune.
JOHAN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)
PASSION ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN, BWV 245
Duration: ca. 1 hour, 54 minutes