16th Budapest International Choral Competition - Opening Concert by Bach, J. S., Dom 09 Aibr 2017, Ó (2017/2017), Faoi stiúir Sylvie Gabor, Seoltóir Gábor Hollerung, Müpa Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

The opening concert of the Budapest International Choral Competition will feature a dramatic version of Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion (BWV 245), which was premièred last year to great success. In this work, the composer employs chronological techniques familiar from spoken drama and opera: speeding up the pace of the story, the Evangelist summarises events as the scenes unfold in real time with nearly operatic dramaturgy. Meanwhile, the chorus, symbolising the crowd in the story, takes the leading role. Time is stopped periodically by the soloists, as they each comment on the events and relay the emotions of a contemporary believer. An additional dimension is timelessness, that is, the current present, which throws back the reflections of the listeners of any era. The chorales performed here depict eternity on one hand, while also offering an experience of the most noble sense of communal togetherness on the other. The fully staged production brings to life the events of the passion according to the operatic dramaturgy implicit in the work, while the characters of the story are personified in the arias. As the Nyíregyházi Cantemus Mixed Choir portrays the multitude on stage, the Budapest Academic Choral Society situated among the audience will sing out the chorales that elevate this story to the level of the eternal. There is good reason why Bach's St John Passion is one of the most popular oratorios in music history. With the thrill of an opera performance and the boundless dimensions of Bach's power of dramatic expression, the concert will endeavour to bestow on the audience of listeners and viewers the most sublime of all humanistic experiences.