Mäkelä Conducts Bach’s St Matthew Passion

Tonight's Artists

Maximilian SchmittEvangelist

The Evangelist is the spine of the St Matthew Passion: the tenor who tells the whole story in recitative, by turns urgent, tender and anguished, and who must hold the vast structure together across three hours. Maximilian Schmitt, a noted Bach tenor experienced in exactly this role, brings the narrative its clarity, flexibility and emotional truth.

Maximilian Schmitt is a German tenor who began as a chorister with the Regensburger Domspatzen and trained at the Berlin University of the Arts. After the Munich opera studio and a period in the ensemble at Mannheim, he built an international career on the concert platform and in Mozart roles (Tamino, Don Ottavio). He is especially admired as a Bach singer, and the role of the Evangelist in the Passions, the narrator who carries the entire drama, is one of his specialities.

Matthew BrookChristus

The role of Christus (Jesus) asks for a bass of warmth, gravity and humanity, the still centre around whom the drama turns, his words always wrapped in their string ‘halo.’ Matthew Brook, one of today’s most experienced Bach singers, brings the necessary dignity and depth to this most sacred of roles.

Matthew Brook is a British bass-baritone with a worldwide reputation in the music of Bach and Handel, admired for the honesty and directness of his singing. He came to wide notice with the Dunedin Consort’s 2007 Gramophone Award-winning Messiah and has since recorded and performed the great Baroque oratorios and Passions across the world, working with many of the leading period-performance conductors.

Julia Lezhnevasoprano

The soprano arias of the St Matthew Passion are among its most radiant moments of reflection: pure, soaring music that calls for a voice of crystalline beauty and impeccable control. Julia Lezhneva, famed for exactly those qualities, brings them an other-worldly serenity.

Julia Lezhneva, born on Sakhalin Island in 1989, is one of the most acclaimed sopranos of her generation, celebrated for the purity and agility of her voice. In 2009, aged nineteen, she became the youngest winner of the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition; she sang at the 2010 Classical Brit Awards and has recorded a series of solo albums for Decca. She is especially renowned in Baroque and Classical repertoire, where her flawless technique and pure tone are ideally suited to Bach.

Tim Meadcountertenor

The alto arias are the emotional heart of the Passion, above all ‘Erbarme dich,’ the great plea for mercy sung after Peter’s denial, with its weeping solo violin. Sung here by the countertenor Tim Mead, whose warm, elegant voice is ideally suited to this music, they provide the work’s most profound moments of grief and consolation.

Tim Mead, born in Chelmsford in 1981, is one of the leading countertenors of his generation, prized for the warmth, evenness and stylistic elegance of his voice. A former choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, he sang the title role of Handel’s Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne in 2006 and has since sung with the world’s leading Baroque conductors and ensembles.

Laurence Kilsbytenor

Beyond the Evangelist, the St Matthew Passion gives the tenor voice a series of searching arias of reflection. The young British tenor Laurence Kilsby, admired for his expressive, characterful singing, brings them freshness and ardour.

Laurence Kilsby is a young British tenor rapidly gaining international recognition for his vivid stage presence and expressive musicianship. In 2023 he was a winner of the international song competition run by the Heidelberger Frühling festival. He is increasingly in demand across opera, song and the Baroque repertoire.

Krešimir Stražanacbass

The bass arias of the Passion include some of its most consoling music, among them ‘Mache dich, mein Herze, rein’ (‘Make thyself pure, my heart’), sung as Christ is laid in the tomb. Krešimir Stražanac, a noted Bach interpreter, brings them their needed warmth and gravity.

Krešimir Stražanac is a Croatian bass-baritone with a flourishing international career. Trained in Stuttgart, he became a permanent member of the Zurich Opera for seven seasons and has built a wide repertoire on stage and in concert. He is particularly renowned in the Baroque repertory, especially the music of Bach, appearing with leading period-instrument ensembles across Europe.

Netherlands Chamber Choirchoir

The St Matthew Passion is built on the interplay of two choirs, who lament, narrate the crowd’s part, and sing the great chorales. The Netherlands Chamber Choir, one of the world’s foremost professional choirs, supplies the precision, blend and dramatic power this monumental score demands.

The Netherlands Chamber Choir (Nederlands Kamerkoor), founded in 1937, is among the most renowned professional chamber choirs in the world. It is celebrated for the precision, blend and expressive range of its singing across an enormous repertoire, from Renaissance polyphony to a long list of newly commissioned works, and it collaborates regularly with leading orchestras and conductors. Its artistry brings both refinement and dramatic presence to the choral writing in Weill’s Der Silbersee.

National Children's Choirchoir

In the towering opening and closing movements of Part One, Bach crowns the two adult choirs with a separate choir of high voices intoning a chorale tune (‘O Lamb of God, unspotted’) above the texture, a sound of piercing innocence amid the grief. The National Children’s Choir supplies these soaring young voices, one of the work’s most unforgettable effects.

The National Children’s Choir (Nationaal Kinderkoor), part of the Nationale Koren, is a leading Dutch choir of young voices and a regular partner of the country’s orchestras for works requiring a children’s chorus.