If you are a student, you can get free tickets for yourself and your accompanying parent to a special period-instrument performance of J.S. Bach's "St. John's Passion" by Upper Valley Baroque, on the 300th anniversary of its premiere by Bach on Good Friday, 1724. Here's information about the concert. excerpted from Bob Eddy's article in The Herald.
One year ago UVB Maestro Filippo Ciabatti thrilled a nearly sold-out Randolph audience, with Claudio Monteverdi's monumental "Solemn Vespers." In February a second large Chandler house responded with a standing ovation to Handel's "Water Music". The 3 PM May 19th concert will be the third collaboration between Chandler and UVB, which began because of the Music Hall's splendid acoustics.
Though Bach wrote the "St. John's Passion" to be performed for a church service, says Ciabatti, it shows "a much higher level of theatricality than other church music of his day.We call it a passion, but it really is an oratorio: full of colors, extremely intense and dramatic."
The work alternates between telling of the gospel story in recitative and reflecting upon it in chorales and arias, bringing it from the head into the heart. "In this way the Passion becomes immediate, personal. No longer simply a story from the past, it is happening again, now," Ciabatti adds.
The performance will be followed by a complimentary reception, featuring homemade treats.
Tickets for this very special event are available at www.uppervalleybaroque.org/concerts or 203-240-1164. Students may obtain complimentary tickets for themselves and an accompanying parent by calliing that same number.