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Not short on action, the Old Testament book of Joshua charts the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land, the razing of Jericho, several massacres and the suspension of time while sun and moon stand motionless so the enemy can be avenged in daylight. (Apparently Nasa, failing to confirm an appropriately timed late bronze age eclipse, has no category to account for divine intervention.)...
The City of London Sinfonia festival devoted to the music of Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) ended in appropriately high spirits with a concert given in the splendid setting of Southwark Cathedral. We began with the heat-haze of a July morning, vividly portrayed by colourful strings and woodwinds in the opening number of the suite from the ballet Les Animaux modèles (1940). This highly attractive...
Stephen Layton’s outstanding new St John is about as state-of-the-art a Bach Passion recording as you’ll hear. For all its referencing various traditions, the overall signposting is pitched in the ‘middle of the road’ (and I mean that simply as one likely to satisfy as broad church as any available recording) and yet it appears remarkably fresh-sounding. Take as read the urgency, clarity, balance...
For many, the story of Christ’s arrest, trial and Crucifixion finds its perfect musical incarnation in Bach’s St Matthew Passion. The St John Passion, its unruly younger sibling, is less well-known and, on the face of it, less perfect. Whereas the calm alteration of chorus, aria and recitative of the Matthew Passion is never disturbed, in the John Passion it’s soon shoved aside by the sheer...
sinfinimusic.com
Andrew Stewart listens to Stephen Layton and Polyphony's recording of Bach's St John Passion and finds a true believer's response to the music and story
5*****
There are times when performers are collectively caught by great music like a deer in headlights. Stephen Layton and his colleagues soar high above the trap set for over-reverent interpreters, those who dwell too deeply on...
Bach : St John Passion - Music Web International
Stephen Layton and Polyphony perform the St. John Passion every year around Easter time, usually at St. John’s Smith Square in London. This recording was made in the days that followed their performance there on 6 April 2012.
Bach revised the work several times, as is explained in the excellent note by the eminent Bach scholar, Christoph Wolff;...