Ben Johnson Evangelist
Andrew Ashwin Jesus
Zoë Brookshaw soprano
Diana Moore alto
Gwilym Bowen tenor
Ashley Riches bass
Hertfordshire Chorus
David Temple conductor
THE HANOVER BAND
JS BACH St John Passion
The St John Passion is a powerful and dramatic tour de force, the earliest of the surviving Passions of Johann Sebastian Bach. It was written during his first year as director of church music in Leipzig and first performed at Good Friday Vespers on 7 April 1724.
Passions tell the story of the lead-up to, and crucifixion of Christ, and were originally intended for Holy Week. Bach used words and hymns or chorales which would have been familiar to congregations of the time. The story is presented as a musical dialogue between the soloists, the choir taking the role of a crowd or congregation.
Bach’s expressive setting of the St John Passion reaches emotional heights at key moments in the story. We will use the English translation of the St John Passion, edited by singer and musicologist Neil Jenkins. For an English-speaking audience, this translation creates a more immediate understanding of the narrative than with the original German.
With a stellar cast of soloists and accompanied by the period instrument specialists, The Hanover Band, Hertfordshire Chorus’s performance of Bach’s dramatic and moving setting of the Passion is not to be missed.
Crouch End Festival Chorus’s recording of the piece, conducted by our musical director David Temple is available on Spotify. We are delighted to be working with Andrew Ashwin and Ashley Riches who you can hear on this recording.
Ben Johnson Evangelist
Andrew Ashwin Jesus
Zoë Brookshaw soprano
Diana Moore alto
Gwilym Bowen tenor
Ashley Riches bass
Hertfordshire Chorus
David Temple conductor
THE HANOVER BAND
“Strings are gleaming and engaged, their woodwind sublime, their brass bright and flexible, their percussion alert….”
HANOVER (Not Hannover; Germany) In terms of British history the majority of the music we play is from the Hanoverian period. Hanover also refers to Hanover Square in London, where Haydn performed his symphonies and arias in the Salomon Concerts in the 1790’s.
BAND (ref: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians)
‘An instrumental ensemble, larger than a chamber ensemble. Thus the ’24 violins’ of Louis XIV were called ‘la grande bande’ to distinguish them from Lully’s ‘petits violons’, and Charles II’s similar ensemble was known as ‘the King’s Band’. By extension, ‘band’ came to mean an orchestra in colloquial British usage’.
THE HANOVER BAND a period name for a period orchestra.