Passion
Premiére: MLC Music Academy, 1997
Composers: Paul Grabowsky, Alister Spence, Niko Schauble, Doug de Vries, John Rodgers
Program
- 'Come Daughters', Paul Grabowsky
- 'No Justice' (chorale), Paul Grabowsky
- 'Captive', Doug de Vries
- 'Love Me Once' (chorale), Paul Grabowsky
- 'For Love', Alister Spence
- 'Fire and Ice' (chorale), Paul Grabowsky
- 'Crucified', - Niko Schauble
- 'Passion' (chorale), Paul Grabowsky
- 'Finale', John Rodgers
Passion Latest News
On Good Friday, March 21, 2008. The AAO with guest Vocalists Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter will perform Passion at the North Melbourne Town Hall.
Start Time: 2pm
Duration: 70 mins No interval
Venue: Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall
FREE EVENT - bookings essential
Easytix: www.easytix.com.au/artshouse or 03 9639 0096
Program Notes
Five movements from JS Bach's masterpiece (Passion According to St Matthew) were given to five composers from within the Australian Art Orchestra: Doug de Vries, Paul Grabowsky, John Rodgers, Niko Schauble and Alister Spence. Their task was not to arrange or adapt the original music, but to draw inspiration from it, and write new music that would address the same themes. The linking Chorale passages were written by Paul Grabowsky. These were originally premiered by special guest, Christine Sullivan with the AAO at the MLC Music Auditorium on Good Friday in 1997 and during Robyn Archer's 1998 Adelaide Festival. In 2001, Passion was premiered in the Sydney Festival at the Sydney Opera House with special guest Deborah Conway singing the Chorale Passages. In 2005 Passion was performed in Mexico City for the Festival de Mexico Centro Historico with Ruby Hunter and Archie Roach performing the Chorales and three new songs commissioned for the occasion.
Paul Grabowsky has said:
The great 'St Matthew Passion' of Bach covers the extremities of musical emotion in a depiction of the final days of Christ. The compositions draw on the emotional nuances of the original, while employing the language of contemporary music and featuring the virtuosity of the AAO.
In 1998, Passion was recorded for ABC Classics and the CD launched in 1999 with a return performance at the Melbourne Town Hall.
Press for Passion
- "Jazz's Great Passion"
- The Sydney Morning Herald (John Clare), 26.07.1999
- "Power of the Passion - from very different corners"
- The Australian (Jeremy Vincent), 31.03.97
- "Passionate entry to a New Home"
- Sydney Morning Herald (John Shand)
Listen to a sample from Passion
