Easter Sunday at Snape – A further enquiry into the nature of things with Solomon's Knot (work in progress)

Easter at Snape – A further enquiry into the nature of things with Solomon's Knot (work in progress)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

9 April

Easter Sunday at Snape Maltings – A further enquiry into the nature of things :

Solomon's Knot in Bach's St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (work in progress)

No more so than would The Full Monty, given by I Fagiolini at Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Cambridge, during Cambridge Summer Music Festival (in 2005 ?), have been as when those performers sang that selection of Monteverdi's Madrigale under the same title, but in another venue, than Solomon's Knot, with J. S. Bach's St Matthew Passion, in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, will assuredly be as they and it were at Snape Maltings (on Easter Sunday) – or, for that matter, in Weimar's Herderkirche (on Good Friday).

Partly, there is site-specificity at play / stake and involved, and, if there are not, as at Britten Pears Arts, side-aisles and a central block of seats, one simply cannot have one's four-part choirs face each other across the stalls and flood the hall with sound in both directions. This was a moment that, probably as one had not envisaged - as one saw it approach - that it could be, was both moving and effective – just, in fact, as so much else was in what we saw and heard, which we had perhaps understood before, but not, in and at the same time, deeply felt in this way before. Or, then again, which we had sensed, but not so fully grasped and found tangible in its questioning force.

Yes, we did feel that what Bach gave us had both just been written and yet always existed.

One of last decade's panel discussions for the regular @AAMorchestra performances of this (and the St John) Passion during Easter at King's highlighted the work's sense of inevitability :

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) April 10, 2023

However many times arias and chorales take us out of chronicity into devotion, empathy, contemplation, praise, the pacing and purity of the succeeding words of recitative from Thomas Herford, as The Evangelist, bring us right back into the shock and immediacy of what faces Jesus.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) April 11, 2023

There is such power in solo or lead musicians (whether instrumentalists or vocalists) not being tied to following a printed score, and, when York Early Music Festival ran three or four recitals of Bach's solo compositions for, probably, violin, keyboard and cello, it was Alison McGillivray who, for this reason, communicated most directly – likewise the great Alisa Weilerstein, during Aldeburgh Festival, in a recital in Blythburgh Church.


More to come...

The first St Matthew Passion I ever attended was also in Trinity Chapel, in Feb 2004 Nick Collon conducting, I was quite blown away by it, and not since has it left as big an impression as then. Until last night, which was truly alive and unforgettable @solomonsknot @derMusikant pic.twitter.com/GzDHycJSOy

— Peter Conlon (@phc27x) April 13, 2023

Well-deserved standing ovation for a superb St. Matthew Passion from @solomonsknot. Loved the solo instrumentalists coming out front and interacting with the singers during arias. Brilliant stand-in Evangelist from Ruairi Bowen. Just miffed they left before we finished clapping! https://t.co/xECixBLwl6

— Eleri W. (@Lelsiboots) April 12, 2023

Eternally grateful to this bunch of absolute legends for the Matthew Passion of a lifetime. Feeling so lucky to be able to co-shape the music as I ideally imagine it, and then see it fly in the hands of these incredible musicians and souls. ❤️💔❤️@solomonsknot pic.twitter.com/Pfv4NMexDT

— Jonny Sells 🇬🇧🇪🇺🇨🇭🇯🇴 (@derMusikant) June 20, 2023

😊 There's nothing more important than how our work impacts each audience member.

It's so special when people feel willing to share their experiences with us. We are profoundly grateful to everyone who has joined us on the journey of St Matthew Passion.

More to come in June! pic.twitter.com/lBlYVrC9Xm

— 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗢𝗠𝗢𝗡’𝗦 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗧 🎻🤘 (@solomonsknot) April 13, 2023

Huge shout out to @solomonsknot for the most stunning, dramatic, powerful, searingly moving, poetic St Matthew passion tonight. #definitive #bravo

— Useful&Kind (@UsefulandKind) April 12, 2023

End-notes :

* Probably familiar to so many, who have not necessarily had a chance to set foot within the chapel, from the service of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's, with its processions and solemnity of ceremony (as televised and broadcast by radio) ?





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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)