Thursday, March 12, 2015

English Passiontide music in Hamburg

Saturday 28 March 2015, at 7pm, sees the premiere of the English Passiontide composition “40 days+nights” in the Anglican Church of St Thomas Becket (Zeughausmarkt 22). The piece is a choral cantata on the theme of the English hymn “Forty days and forty nights” and has been composed by Yotin Tiewtrakul (born 1975), Director of Music at the Anglican Church.

While Germany has the St Matthew and St John Passions, there is nothing comparable in the UK. “40 days+nights” is also a Passiontide cantata with a difference. Set for unison voices, baritone sole (Gabriel Kyne), organ (Jochim Trede) and piano (Tobias Saalmann), it seeks to approach Jesus’s experience of suffering through the time in the wilderness. A musical setting of words by the Cologne pastor and poetry slammer, Holger Pyka, complements the verses of the hymn.

There is no admission charge, but donations are appreciated.