St John Passion for three
Saturday 22 March, 19:00
(Doors open at 18:15)
Oslo Cathedral
Adult: 440 NOK
Senior/student: 320 NOK
Child: 100 NOK
Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes
ST JOHN PASSION FOR THREE
Benedikt Kristjánsson, tenor
Philipp Lamprecht, percussion
Elina Albach, harpsichord and organ
Oslo Cathedral Youth Choir
Sindre Hugo Bjerkestrand, conductor
Sing along to an award-winning St John Passion
As a part of this year’s thematic focus, ‘Masses and passions in step with the times’, Elina Albach, Phillipp Lamprecht, and Benedikt Kristjánsson will perform J.S. Bach’s St John Passion in a trio version! The chorales will be sung by Oslo Cathedral Youth Choir – together with the audience, in keeping with traditional performance practice. Benedikt Kristjánsson conveys the Passion in an intimate interpretation for solo tenor, while the harpsichordist Elina Albach and percussionist Phillipp Lamprecht cover the organ parts in a new vibrant form. The arrangement was performed digitally in an empty church in Leipzig on Good Friday 2020, during the first Covid lockdown, and attracted attention far beyond the classical music scene, with around 1 million listeners from all over the world. In 2019, the project received the OPUS Klassik award for the most Innovative Concert of the Year.
St John Passion was performed for the first time on Good Friday in 1724, in the St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig, and was the highlight of Bach’s first years as cathedral cantor. The biblical text gives us the passion story in Jesus’ time. The arias represent an observer reflecting on the events independent of time, and the chorales express the congregation’s reaction here and now, building a bridge between the story and the congregation.
Welcome to an innovative and exciting interpretation of Bach’s great masterpiece.
Sing-along
For this performance of Bach’s St John Passion, the musicians want to invite the concert audience to sing the chorales together with Oslo Cathedral Youth Choir – inspired by the original performance practice during Bach’s time. Sheet music for the chorales can be e-mailed to those who want them, or they can be downloaded on our website beneath the concert description for this concert. There will also be copies at the concert. The chorales are sung from the church benches.
Contact the festival office at:
info@kirkemusikkfestivalen.no
Benedikt Kristjánsson has established an international career as a concert tenor, collaborating with recognised ensembles such as Staatskapelle Berlin, Holland Baroque, and Nederlandse Bachvereniging. Kristjánsson has distinguished himself in countless competitions, among them the Bach Vocal Competition and the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. His solo album, Drang in die Ferne, was nominated for the Opus Klassik and ICMA.
Philipp Lamprecht is a percussionist specialising in historic and modern music. He is happy to play on historic instruments, such as the Baroque timpani, medieval castanets, and church bells. He tours internationally with several ensembles and teaches at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
Elina Albach studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Professor Jörg-Andreas Bötticher. She has conducted Vocalconsort Berlin, the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, and taught at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold. She has performed at a number of renowned festivals and concert houses all over the world. Currently, Albach’s main focus is arranging works from the Baroque canon for small ensembles.
Oslo Cathedral Youth Choir consists of singers between the ages of 16 to 30. The choir is associated with Oslo Cathedral, and has a wide and versatile repertoire, with everything from folk music from inner Mongolia to Mahler and Strauss. The varied repertoire is due to an ambition that the members should have a steep musical learning curve, and a good knowledge of different eras and traditions, both within choir and church music.
Sindre Hugo Bjerkestrand is a trained conductor, musicologist, and teacher from the Norwegian Academy of Music and the University of Oslo. Bjerkestrand has been the director of Oslo Cathedral Youth Choir since 2013.
Photo: Kristjánsson, Lamprecht, Albach: Bodo Gierga, ODU: Lillian Julsvik, Sindre Hugo Bjerkestrand: Aleksander Bern
