Jordan, Johannsen, Mühlemann, Lehmkuhl, Güra, Volle, Singverein / Bach, Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Right during his first season as Music Director of the Wiener Symphoniker, Philippe Jordan had included in the programme Bach’s “St Matthew Passion”; this was followed by the Mass in B minor and the “St John Passion”, and later by the Christmas Oratorio in two parts. “It is enormously important for the daily work of an orchestra to play Bach or the music of the Viennese classics on a regular basis. For this type of music, special purity and clarity are absolutely imperative.” These are virtues that are important “for orchestra discipline which is indeed required in the late-romantic repertoire, albeit in a less apparent manner”, Jordan explained at the time concerning the artistic digression from the Orchestra’s core repertoire. To complete his large-scale and critically acclaimed cross-seasonal Bach project, Jordan will now come back to the “rediscovery” of Johann Sebastian Bach’s compositions by a wider public of music lovers in the first half of the 19th century. This had been triggered by the revival of the St Matthew Passion in 1829 by the then hardly twenty-year-old Felix Mendelssohn, whose “Reformation” Symphony will be included in the programme along with choral works by Bach. Jordan will be supported by a top-class soloist ensemble which has already taken part in previous years, as well as by the Vienna Singverein concert choir.