Success Clinic International, LLC

And what I think Bettina's work sort of promotes is an awareness and an appreciation of things that aren't on the page, things like breath and touch, how the music flows.

feels when we sing it or play it or listen to it and I've come into contact with her work through a collaboration with her and Maggie Faultless Maggie who's the leader of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and brilliant historical violin player And we, including a particularly interesting project last year when we explored the St John Passion, informed really by Bettina's work.

So she's a fascinating character, a musicologist who also loves music and musicians.

It's not always the case in my experience.

So, yeah, some of the stuff that we've been doing, it's just broken that open so radically.

It's been, I mean, for me as a listener, it's been transformative.

Go on, say a bit more about that because you and I, I've spoken about you on the podcast before, but we've done a few things, including a couple of versions, I think, of the John Passion, where we've kind of tried to collapse these boundaries between the performers and the audience, tried to make it less of a kind of static experience for everybody and tried to get them more into the, Not just nearer the people who are making the music, but actually just nearer to the music somehow.

What's been your, what are your memories of that?

What else is on your mind? I don't know if there's any major Bach things that you want to get on the record.

When I was thinking about what my favorite pieces of Bach are, I mean, I could give you boring answers, like the whole of the B minor mass or the whole of the John Passion or the whole of the Matthew Passion.

Oh, let's have the 48 and we'll have the gold bags and blah, blah, blah.

But one of the things I really, really love, and I listened to it last night and it just brought back again these real feelings of excitement, happiness, joy.

Visit SpinQuest.com for more details.

Leipzig and the St. John Passion This particular incident was the death, half a year after Bach's second marriage, of Johann Kunau, who for more than twenty years had held the cantorship of St. Thomas School in Leipzig.

Whether or not the post seemed to Bach himself as desirable as a kapellmeistership, the sudden vacancy attracted a flock of candidates, some of them men of distinction.

Most preferable in the eyes of the Leipzig Civic Council was Georg Philipp Telemann, who in Bach's day ranked higher in the esteem of many musicians than Bach himself.

While theoretically you could just do three each day, some of Bach's works are much longer than others, and some of the long ones are right next to each other in the catalog.

Listening to the St. Matthew's Passion and St. John's Passion back to back would be more than four hours of listening, whereas listening to three chorales back to back might be less than three minutes.

So probably marching straight through wouldn't work.

I also realized that I would like some variety.

The comfort that we have.

And listening to St. John, St. John's Passion and St. Matthew's Passion by Bach, he gets this, too.

You know, when they, they talk about the burial of Jesus, they, they sing, you know, "Rest well, rest well," you know? And then to sing then that third stanza of, of Lord, Thee I Love With All My Heart, you know, that understanding this, the, of, of, of seeing these things all in light of, of the resurrection, of what, of what we give, of what our Lord gives us.

So yeah, great, just wonderful stuff.

Um, and actually, I think the choral category this year was pretty strong across the board.

It's a very strong shortlist, and it really showed in the spread of the voting that this-- There was also a St. John Passion from Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon.

Of course, they've won this category twice before with the B Minor Mass and the St. Matthew Passion.

Um, and their St. John Passion, it came second, but it was really very close.

Um, but this, this one is, uh, I think it's such a revelation 'cause this music really was unknown by everybody.

Mm.

This is a sign.

Bach's St. John Passion especially brings in a few of these elements from Matthew's gospel.

They're just too good to leave out, right? And especially like the temple curtain tearing in two and such, and, and the rocks breaking open, and the saints', right, bodies coming out a- and poetically he presents this as the whole world, right? All, all of creation kind of having its moment of mourning as well for our Lord in His hour of death, which, which is a, a poetic idea.

But, but certainly it, it draws our attention to this death being this is more than just a normal execution going on here, which is gonna be especially important as we look at, at what it is that Jesus is saying throughout these hours.

And of course, the big question, when are we going to cover a passion? When are we going to cover...

the Matthew Passion, the John Passion.

I'm dragging my feet here because I imagine all the work it would take to cover a Passion, it would probably be six to 12 months of episodes, a whole season, a year of the St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion, but I will do it eventually.

Take a vote in the substack comments if you're not happy with Claverie Ubung 3 coming at you over the next few months.

And if I don't receive any angry mail saying, what about the musical offering? Then we will start that in the next few weeks.