Junge Philharmonie Zentralschweiz | Latvian National Choir | Andres Mustonen | Soloists

Lucerne Festival
Lucerne
Switzerland
http://e.lucernefestival.ch

Junge Philharmonie Zentralschweiz | State Choir "Latvija" | Andres Mustonen conductor | Raminta Vaicekauskaitë soprano | Mati Turi tenor | Vytautas Juozapaitis baritone | Gennadi Bezzubenkov bass



Sofia Gubaidulina faced a dilemma when she took up a commission to compose a Passion for the Bach anniversary year in 2000: “In Russian liturgical practice, there is no Passion tradition,” she remarked. “The Orthodox Church’s practice is to avoid any reference to personal representation or characterization and to anything theatrical.” Yet Gubaidulina solved the problem by freely combining excerpts from the Passion narrative told in the Gospel of St. John with verses from the visionary Book of Revelation, often setting them to music simultaneously. Her “St. John Passion” is closer to a ritual than to a theological plot. Shortly after the world premiere, she complemented the Passion with another large-scale work, the oratorio “St. John Easter” (2002), which focuses on the events involving the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Together they form a diptych that is her opus summum—and a centerpiece of this summer’s career retrospective in Lucerne.



Sofia Gubaidulina : St. John Passion
Sofia Gubaidulina : St. John Easter
Sofia Gubaidulina : In Russian