Handel’s Brockes Passion

On the 300th anniversary of its premiere AAM and Richard Egarr realise a long-held ambition to perform Handel’s mighty Passion setting, one of rare humanity and beauty.

Composed while the young Handel was at the peak of his operatic success in London, his Brockes-Passion is a sacred opera by another name, its emotions and events intricate and richly painted. Following the Passion story from the Last Supper to the Crucifixion, Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ text was set by numerous composers including Telemann and Fasch, but it is Handel’s treatment which has stood the test of time, inviting its listeners into the heart of the Easter story.

A vivid mixture of chorales, choruses and emotive recitatives is enough to place the work alongside Handel’s finest, but it’s the astonishingly varied sequence of arias – over 40 of them – that sets the Brockes-Passion apart. Egarr has assembled a terrific cast to give what promises to be an emotionally charged performance on Good Friday.

Classical music Academy of Ancient Music 2018–19 Drama of the Baroque More...

Sung in German with English surtitles