Bach, J S: St Matthew Passion, BWV244

Orchid Classics: ORC100007

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Bach, J S: St Matthew Passion, BWV244

Label:

Orchid Classics

Catalogue No:

ORC100007

Discs:

2

Release date:

26th Oct 2009

Barcode:

5060189560073

Length:

2 hours 37 minutes

Medium:

CD (download also available)
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Bach, J S: St Matthew Passion, BWV244

Ex Cathedra Choir & Baroque Orchestra, Jeffrey Skidmore

CD - 2 discs

$25.75

(also available to download from $21.00)

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“Jeffrey Skidmore knows this shattering music intimately, and he imparts his love of it so well to his performing forces. Here Ex Cathedra was joined by its Baroque Orchestra boasting an impressive array of names, and it was scintillating to relish here the variety of oboes responding to Bach’s detailed demands, the rasping double-basses, and a viola da gamba which delivered the usually purgatorial solos for this instrument without any penitential grittiness”. (Birmingham Post/Christopher Morley)

“The best choir of its kind in Britain? Very possibly…” (Michael White)

For their first release on Orchid Classics, Ex Cathedra present a brand new recording of the St. Matthew Passion, recorded live in Symphony Hall, Birmingham on Good Friday 2009.

Sung in English using a totally new translation of the original German text, and performed with the Ex Cathedra Baroque Orchestra, this is a unique combination. Fitting onto two very well filled discs with a 32 page booklet with full texts and at a very competitive price.

From its home in Birmingham, Ex Cathedra has established an international reputation as a leading UK choir and Early Music ensemble. Under founder and Artistic Director Jeffrey Skidmore, Ex Cathedra is known for its vibrant performances and a passion for seeking out not only the best but the unfamiliar and the unexpected in the choral repertoire.

Ex Cathedra celebrate their 40th Anniversary in 2009 and this will be highlighted in articles about them and interviews with Jeffrey Skidmore, in the music press.

Johann Sebastian Bach: St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (Sung in English)

playPart I: Come, you daughters, share my mourning (Chorus, Soprano)

playPart I: Recitative: When Jesus had finished saying these things (Evangelist, Jesus)

playPart I: Chorale: O blessed Jesu, how have you offended (Chorus)

playPart I: Recitative: At that time there assembled all the chief (Evangelist, Chorus, Jesus)

playPart I: Recitative: My master and my Lord (Alto 1)

playPart I: Aria: Grief for sin reads the guilty heart within (Alto 1)

playPart I: Recitative: Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas (Evangelist, Judas)

playPart I: Aria: Break in grief, O loving heart (Soprano 2)

playPart I: Recitative: On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus (Evangelist, Chorus, Jesus)

playPart I: Chorale: It's I whose sins have bound you (Chorus)

playPart I: Recitative: He answered them and said (Evangelist, Jesus, Judas)

playPart I: Recitative: Although our eyes with tears o'erflow (Soprano 1)

playPart I: Aria: Jesu, Saviour, I am yours (Soprano 1)

playPart I: Recitative: And after they had sung a hymn together (Evangelist, Jesus)

playPart I: Chorale: Receive me, my Redeemer (Chorus)

playPart I: Recitative: Simon Peter answered and said to him (Evangelist, Peter, Jesus)

playPart I: Chorale: I want to stand beside you (Chorus)

playPart I: Recitative: Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane (Evangelist, Jesus)

playPart I: Recitative: O Grief! What trembling of his heavy heart! (Tenor 1) - Chorale: My Saviour, why must all this trouble fall on you? (Chorus)

playPart I: Aria: I would beside my Lord be watching (Tenor 1, Chorus)

playPart I: Recitative: And going further, he threw himself on the ground (Evangelist, Jesus)

playPart I: Recitative: The Saviour, low before his Father bending (Bass 2)

playPart I: Aria: Never will I choose to leave him (Bass 2)

playPart I: Recitative: Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping (Evangelist, Jesus)

playPart I: Chorale: O Father, let your will be done (Chorus)

playPart I: Recitative: Again he came and found them sleeping (Evangelist, Jesus, Judas)

playPart I: Aria: My Saviour Jesus, now is taken (Soprano 1, Alto 1, Chorus)

playPart I: Recitative: And suddenly, one of the disciples who were there with Jesus (Evangelist, Jesus)

playPart I: Chorale: O World, your sinful ways lament (Chorus)

playPart II: Aria: Ah! Now is my Saviour gone! (Alto 1, Chorus)

playPart II: Recitative: And those who had arrested Jesus took him to the house of the high priest (Evangelist)

playPart II: Chorale: How falsely does the world accuse! (Chorus)

playPart II: Recitative: Though many false witnesses came forward (Evangelist, False Witnesses, High Priest)

playPart II: Recitative: My Lord stays silent, though men accuse him falsely (Tenor 2)

playPart II: Aria: Endure through lies and taunts and slander (Tenor 2)

playPart II: Recitative: The high priest answered, and said to him (Evangelist, High Priest, Jesus, Chorus)

playPart II: Chorale: O Lord, who dares to strike you (Chorus)

playPart II: Recitative: Simon Peter was sitting in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him and said (Evangelist, First Maid, Peter, Second Maid, Chorus)

playPart II: Aria: Have mercy, Lord on, me (Alto 1)

playPart II: Chorale: Lamb of God, I fall before you (Chorus)

playPart II: Recitative: Now when the morning came (Evangelist, Judas, Chorus, Chief Priests)

playPart II: Aria: Give, O give me back my Saviour (Evangelist)

playPart II: Recitative: After they had conferred together (Evangelist, Pilate, Jesus)

playPart II: Chorale: Commit your way to Jesus (Chorus)

playPart II: Recitative: Now on the feast day (Evangelist, Pilate, Pilate's Wife, Chorus)

playPart II: Amazing love, this sacrifice to offer (Chorus)

playPart II: Recitative: The Governor asked (Evangelist, Pilate)

playPart II: Recitative: To all men Jesus has done good (Soprano 1)

playPart II: Aria: For love my Saviour now is dying (Soprano 1)

playPart II: Recitative: But they shouted all the more and said (Evangelist, Chorus, Pilate)

playPart II: Recitative: Have pity, God! (Alto 2)

playPart II: Aria: If my weeping and my wailing be unavailing (Alto 1)

playPart II: Recitative: And then the Governor's soldiers took Jesus (Evangelist, Chorus)

playPart II: O bleeding head, so wounded (Chorus)

playPart II: And after they had mocked him (Evangelist)

playPart II: Recitative: In truth our flesh and blood must be (Bass 1)

playPart II: Come, healing Cross! (Bass 1)

playPart II: Recitative: And when they came to a place called Golgotha (Evangelist, Chorus)

playPart II: Recitative: Ah, Golgotha! Unhappy Golgotha! (Alto 1)

playPart II: Aria: See it: see the Saviour's outstretched arm (Alto 1, Chorus)

playPart II: Recitative: Now from the midday hour there fell a darkness (Evangelist, Jesus, Chorus)

playPart II: Chorale: Be near me, Lord, when dying (Chorus)

playPart II: And then, at once (Evangelist, Chorus)

playPart II: Recitative: At evening, hour of calm and rest (Bass 1)

playPart II: Aria: Cleanse yourself, my heart from sin (Bass 1)

playPart II: Recitative: So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen (Evangelist, Chorus, Pilate)

playPart II: Recitative: And now the Lord is laid to rest (Bass 1, Alto 1, Soprano 1, Chorus)

playPart II: In tears of grief, dear Lord (Chorus)

BBC Music Magazine

December 2009

“The Ex Cathedra performance is superb. Jeremy Budd is an unaffected narrator of the Evangelist's story; Natalie Clifton-Griffith's 'Break in grief' is heart-rending; Mark Chamber' 'Have mercy, Lord' deeply moving and, as choral singers, all the aria soloists are free of overly-distinctive vocal affectations.”

Birmingham Post

“The Ex Cathedra Baroque Orchestra plays with style and clarity, sprung from a light bass-line, and it is particularly gratifying to have the viola da gamba obbligati delivered with such verve and panache by Richard Campbell: a far cry from the purgatorial interminabilities of these movements in decades long gone”

Early Music Review

“The choir ... seems to have their music in their blood”

Gramophone Magazine

December 2009

“Skidmore's overall shaping of the St Matthew… is marked by exceptional judgement in nurturing his forces, a compelling corporate élan channeled through the warm-toned Ex Cathedra and a largely alert orchestra. The chorales and choral interpolations are responsively delivered with deft voicing and attention to textural detail. "M saviour Jesus now is changed" (no 27) is brilliantly placed, and highlights the transcendent nature of this great movement. If words are occasionally muffled, the coherence and rich colouring of "O World, your sinful ways lament" (No 29) and the final chorus confirm the quality of Ex Cathedra's distinguished involvement.”

International Record Review

“If you're in the market for an English version of St Matthew Passion, this is warnly recommended ... I found Ex Cathedra's alert performance a persuasive listen”

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