Johannes Passion BWV 245

On the 300th anniversary of its first performance in Leipzig – 7 April 1724

Carlo Putelli tenor (Evangelist)

Sergio Foresti baritone (Christ)

Lucia Casagrande Raffi soprano

Lucia Napoli mezzo-soprano

Luca Cervoni tenor

Federico Benetti baritone

Canticum Novum Chamber Choir

Hermans Academy

Fabio Ciofini director

J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

St. John Passion BWV 245

(On the 300th anniversary of its first performance in Leipzig – 7 April 1724)

A co-production of the Brunello & Federica Cucinelli Foundation and Perugia’s Amici della Musica.

John Eliot Gardiner has called the St John Passion, which celebrates its 300th anniversary since its first performance (Leipzig, 7 April 1724, on the occasion of Bach’s first Passionmusik at Nikolaikirche), “as bold and complex an amalgam of storytelling and meditation, religion and politics, music and theology, as there has ever been.” A work perfectly emblematic of its era, imbued with Lutheran preaching, the Johannes-Passion is also an absolute musical and ethical monument, one whose message appears today, three centuries later, purely intact.