In commemoration of Bach’s birthday, Tim Smith, professor of
music theory at Northern Arizona University, has designed a “virtual
performance” of the St. Matthew Passion. The interactive and innovative
site will be launched March 21, Bach’s birthday, in time for Holy Week. It is best viewed on full screen at http://bach.nau.edu/matthew/mp.html (or
on laptop here.)
Smith
created the site for the Oregon Bach Festival to honor Helmuth Rilling for his 44 years as artistic
director.
The
St. Matthew Passion represents the high-water mark of liturgical art in the
eighteenth century. It received its first performance in Leipzig on Good
Friday of 1727, with three more in Bach’s lifetime. Thereafter the work was
forgotten and nearly lost, until a landmark performance by Felix Mendelssohn a
hundred years later. Since then, the St. Matthew Passion has seldom been heard
in its liturgical context, having become part of the standard literature of the
concert hall. This website reimagines the work in its original setting by using
Bach’s Bible and Leipzig’s churches as interactive hypertexts.
“I
want to move and motivate people -- to inspire them,” said Smith, website
designer. “By reimagining the piece as
liturgical art, I hope to nudge those who perform and love it to more awareness
of its existence, and genesis, as an artifact of faith. It is still this way
for many people, especially during Holy Week.”
Throughout
his 44 years as master teacher, conductor, and artistic director of the Oregon
Bach Festival, Helmuth Rilling has demonstrated a deep respect for Bach’s
liturgical music as the public enactment of a particular community’s beliefs
and its commitments. In this performance by the Gächinger Kantorei and the
Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (courtesy of Hänssler Classic), he guides us through
the narrative of the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life as recorded by the
Evangelist, St. Matthew. It is an inspiring and moving experience, with
important lessons for all people.
Soloists include Michael
Schade (Evangelist), Christiane Oelze, Ingeborg Danz, Matthias Goerne, and
Thomas Quasthoff.
The website
offers the libretto in fifteen languages. Adobe Flash is required.
Partners in the Digitalbach
Project include the Hinkle Charitable Foundation, the Oregon Bach Festival,
Hänssler Classic, and Northern Arizona University.