A Great Success

Antonio Pappano's St John Passion
impresses GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Usually, the National Academy of Santa Cecilia celebrates Easter and its related holidays with a grand concert of religious music. By 'grand', I mean a concert entailing the use of the symphony orchestra, chorus and soloists.

This year the choice fell on Bach's St John Passion, an oratorio that since 1950 has been performed some twenty times in the concert subscription series of the Academy, even though worldwide is generally less played than the better known St Matthew Passion.

The St John Passion has had a complicated composition and performance history...

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