The Early Garden on Thursday 7 April 20:00 CET features an unknown St John Passion, a work composed by an 18 year-old Georg Friedrich Händel! The performance is by the La Capella Ducale and Musica Fiata and is conducted by Roland Wilson.
We are in the middle of the Passion period and all over the Netherlands Bach’s Passions are being performed for live audiences for the first time in two years. But Georg Friedrich Händel has also written a Passion: a St John Passion!
The work was first discovered as an anonymous manuscript in a Berlin library, and it is still not entirely certain that Handel actually wrote it. Initially, this oratorio was considered to have been written by the composer when he was 18 years old. Around 1970, however, a German scientist attributed the work to Georg Böhm. Reinhard Keizer has also been mentioned as the possible composer. But for conductor Roland Wilson it is almost certain: this is a work by the young Handel.
The non-liturgical texts were written by the 17th-century poet and librettist Christian Heinrich Postel, who closely follows the Passion according to John.
We will play a recording of a beautiful performance by La Capella Ducale and Musica Fiata conducted by Roland Wilson.
Broadcasts:
- Thursday 7 April 2022, 20.00 – 21.00 CET
- Friday 15 April 2022, 06.00 – 07.00 CET
- Click here for the playlist
