Friday, April 3, 2015 at 3:00 PM
at Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa

Cathedral Arts presents

Johannes-Passion

with

Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa Choirs

with

Nils Brown
Evangelist

Gary Dahl
Christus

Christopher Mallory
Pilatus

Thank you to all who attended this event. The audience packed the Cathedral to the rafters: the floor and the balcony were full.

On Good Friday, April 3, the combined Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa Choirs of Men, Boys, and Girls presented Bach’s monumental oratorio, Johannes-Passion, St. John’s Passion, with orchestra and soloists. Cathedral Arts is very proud to have helped to present this event at Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa.

Bach wrote this masterpiece for the Good Friday Liturgy at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, where it was first heard on April 7, 1724. Although the work differs in size and scope Bach’s setting of St. Matthew’s account, it has an immediate, dramatic quality.

The performance featured, as would have been Bach’s practice, soloists drawn from the choir, with bass-baritones Gary Dahl and Christopher Mallory as Christ and Pilate, respectively. Other soloists included trebles Benjamin Mallory and Graeme Thies-Thompson, countertenor Andrew Robar, tenor Keith Gomes, and baritones Alasdair Campbell and Devyn Pope. Internationally-renowned Canadian tenor Nils Brown was featured as guest soloist, in the role of St. John, Evangelist.

The presentation was in collaboration with the Ottawa Music Company Orchestra. The orchestra was of significant size, and included not only the standard baroque ensemble of stringed instruments, flutes, oboes, and continuo, but also very colourful instrumental doublings on oboes d’amore and da caccia. The continuo instrumentation varied, with lute and organ alternating as harmony instruments.

Details

Date: Friday, April 3, 2015
Time: 3:00 P.M.