Solomon’s Knot Artistic Director Jonathan Sells gives his personal take on why JS Bach’s St Matthew Passion continues to attract audiences every year, for whom it is ‘for’, and how we should best approach listening to or experiencing it.
Far removed from the era and context of the first performances of the Matthew Passion, our ritualised annual concert performances of the piece have become an object of worship in their own right.
As well as the beguiling music and compelling story, the Passion speaks to all of our failings as human beings and, through the devastating example of Christ’s torture and death, inspires us to do better.
