By JESSICA NEU
Chatham Baroque and Concert Theatre Works are presenting the world premiere staging of J.S. Bach’s long-lost Markus Passion in Pittsburgh on April 11, 2025, at Carnegie Music Hall. This semi-staged performance, directed by visionary Bill Barclay, brings to life Malcolm Bruno’s groundbreaking reconstruction of Bach’s lost Passion. Audiences will experience a dynamic resurrection of this historic work, consisting of an ensemble of 19 performers featuring Chatham Baroque, the NYC-based The Sebastians, four distinguished vocal soloists. As the ensemble prepared, I had the pleasure of speaking with Chatham Baroque’s co-artistic directors and musicians, Andrew Fouts (violin), Scott Pauley (theorbo and co-artistic director), and Jeffrey Grossman (artistic director of The Sebastians).
Andrew Fouts exclaimed what a neat project this is for Chatham Baroque on so many levels. Performing this piece provides the opportunity to do something in a novel approach regarding Bach’s Passions. The two that are done, the Passions of Matthew and John, were not lost and have been played many times. The lost Markus Passion has been pieced together and will be heard for the first time. Fouts continues that this performance will be shorter because an actor will speak the text translated from German to English.
Pauley has had the pleasure of playing the John Passion with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, but is looking forward to having the third and lost Passion to play with Chatham Baroque. He notes that it took some clever detective work to figure out how to piece together the libretto. Musicologists had the libretto and the publisher’s catalog of the first few bars of the piece, so they could discern what the orchestration was and discovered that it was similar to another piece that Bach wrote. The similar piece was a funeral contata written for the princess of Poland. Pauley explains that the a was a great piece of music that Bach wanted to use again, but he was likely very busy, so it was common to self-borrow and rework one’s pieces. Pauley continues that both the libretto and the cantata had interesting scoring, which you cannot find anywhere else in Bach’s music.
Grossman, a CMU alum, credits Malcolm Bruno with the stellar detective work. He notes it was “a fun challenge figuring out how the new text that Malcolm has added mends the story together and how to express the story on stage while best honoring the original piece of art. There were a few missing pieces that Malcolm had to find some other works of Bach that fit the poetic meter of the text and the mood of the piece, and he found some others that fit that repertoire. There is nothing in the Markus Passion that is not written by Bach himself.”
Pauley described the process to rectify the Markus Passion as having a “beautiful ancient Greek torso, so what remains is beautiful original work, but what was missing we have the spoken words to enhance the story.”
This is the first time a Passions will feature the Evangelist telling the story in English. “There is an opportunity to connect with an audience who wouldn’t otherwise see a 3+ hour performance in German,” Fouts explains. The phenomenal instrumentalists, production crew, and singers allow for the show to be in another dimension.” He is also looking forward to absorbing the narration in his native language. “I am excited to have a different experience in listening to the story unfold having the Passion spoken in English vs. hearing it in German.” Fouts also discussed a bit of a different preparation process for the Markus Passion because he will be playing one 5-minute aria from memory. He explains, “to be completely off-book and off-stand, on a stage adds another dimension to the performance that I am not usually part of as a concert violinist and adds another layer of preparation.”
The Markus Passion has unusual instrumentation, including two lutes and two viola da gambas. The violas da gambas and the lutes are used more heavily in this piece than in the other two Passions, where they are only used sparingly. Fouts explains how this is special for Chatham Baroque because “the instrumentation fits our ensemble so perfectly.” When the first two Passions are played in concert, normally, there is a full orchestra on stage. Chatham Baroques Markus Passionfeatures only 18 musicians on stage, and most musicians play their own unique part.
Fouts considers how the audience will experience the Markus Passion differently based on their faith, but the “timing of the show is unique…right before Psalm Sunday and hearing the story and hearing the sublime music within this sacred setting with a sacred text will offer a 4th dimension of experience” for audiences. “The cantatas are transcendent and are hard to put words to even describe them,” Pauley explains. “People are amazed at how much they are moved just by the sound of the music and the moving harmonies. It can be overwhelmingly emotional.”
Pauley hopes that the audience will feel the emotions and the passion of the Passion. “You don’t need to be a religious person to take in the message because this is a universally human experience,” Pauley notes. Fouts believes that this translation will allow audience members unfamiliar with the story to have still meaningful content to engage with. Audiences will be able to hear the story unfold with the chorus and corral in German but the Evangelist speaking in English.” Grossman notes that “the spirit of connection is amazing.” He hopes to connect the story to the audience and create a special experience because the “music that we put together is not particularly dramatic…it has an element of theater to it.” “We are trying to create an immediate emotional reaction from the audience and bring music to life the way it was when it was fresh on the page,”
Grossman explains. “What is special about this story, regardless of faith, longing for something better for a better life, fear of loss, sadness, and joy, [which] are overarching themes of human existence. We hope for just a moment to open a window to those emotions how they existed 200 years ago and how they exist now.” Pauley expresses that this show is important right now because we are amidst a divided society, and it is easy for people to be angry at each other about a lot of things. He hopes Markus Passion will remind us that we are all human and have more in common than differences.
“We are all so distracted,” Grossman continues. “Our attention spans are short. We are constantly checking everything – emails, texts and this performance is a chance for audiences to step away from that and experience something greater than ourselves that is unique…and connect with something bigger – something spiritual. We don’t get a lot of chances to do that in society right now. This performance is truly the highest form of escapism.”
Fouts notes, “If you want to get to know what made Bach tick as a composer and how his music is a response to serve a spiritual purpose is a great opportunity. So, I hope that it will be super impactful and the gorgeous music is an event by itself.”
So, who is J. S. Bach? “Bach is everything!” Grossman explains. “A symbol of all that is perfect in the universe but also just a man working a job everyday and father to many children and husband to a wife who he really loved by all accounts. He wrote cranky letters and to his bosses that he didn’t have enough money to hire musicians. He worked hard, but the art that he created seems straight out of the heavens and it is perfection.”
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Chatham Baroque and Concert Theatre Works present the world premiere staging of J.S. Bach’s long-lost Markus Passion on April 11, 2025, at Carnegie Music Hall. Tickets available at: www.chathambaroque.org.
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Show Previews
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