Bach and Handel, united by 'Passion'

Johann Sebastian Bach And George Frideric Handel had many things in common: they were German, Protestant, born in the same year, and both went blind at the end of their lives, operated on for cataracts... by the same surgeon.

The play by Paul Barz Four-hands dinner It places the two musicians on a stage, in a meeting that never actually took place. One can speculate about the extent to which Handel envied Bach's musical knowledge, while Bach envied his colleague's cosmopolitanism and financial fortune... Who knows?

The point is that in 1747 Bach had to organize the audition for St. Thomas Church in Leipzig of the Passion It was his turn to sing that Holy Week, and according to the liturgical year, it was the feast of the Evangelist Mark. For the occasion, the old cantor turned to seven arias that Handel had written in his youth for an oratorio. He added recitatives of his own, pieces by Reinhard Keiser, and several chorales and chorales to give unity to the whole.

Since then, this pasticcio —a common practice at the time— had not been programmed again. And, spurred on by the Salvat Foundation and Bachcelona, ​​Daniel Tarrida has wisely resurrected that piece. The collaboration of the Music Museum, the Office of Religious Affairs of the Barcelona City Council, and the German-speaking evangelical community gathered at the Martin Luther Church on Brusi Street in Barcelona has been essential to bringing the project to fruition.

A vocal team supported by the Salvat Foundation (Mariana Rodrigues, Jana Corominas, Itamar Hildesheim, and Lluís Arratia) and an instrumental ensemble consisting of two violins (Vadym Makarenko and Andrés Murillo), a viola (Núria Pujolràs), a cello (Guiller), and the harpsichord (Daniel Tarrida) made the evening possible, with a performance premiered the day before in Esplugues and which is touring Spain this weekend.

Throughout the performance, it was interesting to note how Handel, although still far from his Italian and London sojourns, was already showing signs of operatic tendencies in his vocal writing, much more luminous than that of a Bach inclined toward ascetic contemplation.

This exhumation operation has gone well for several reasons: Tarrida's conduct and rigor, the The musical quality of the performers and because, in these times, there is a need to listen to music that transcends us and reminds us that, believers or non-believers, we are spiritual beings. And to do so outside the eternal Passions Visiting regular visitors and discovering a heritage that was sleeping the sleep of the just is always stimulating.