The project
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The Welsh Camerata is Wales' premier early music choir, directed by the renowned early music specialist Andrew Wilson-Dickson. ![]()
We will perform a new reconstruction of J S Bach's 'lost' St Mark Passion on Good Friday, 25 March 2016. Tickets for the performance are available from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama box office.
Following the performance the score and parts will be published by Canasg Music, the online choral publisher.
The PassionThe St Mark is one of four biblical Passions that Bach is known to have composed, of which only two survive in their complete form: St Matthew and St John. It is a ‘parody’ work: owing to time pressures, Bach compiled most of it from music he had already composed for other purposes, a common practice at a time when new music was composed on a weekly basis and was not expected to be kept for posterity. It was written for Easter 1731 and first performed on Good Friday.
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Fortunately, we know what that music was, and it is music of quality; remarkably however it shines even brighter in the context of the Passion, as though Bach had known all along that this work was destined for higher purposes. All the existing music can quite easily be matched up with Picander's libretto (which survives in its entirety). But that leaves the recitatives, some arias and the turba choruses without a note.
The ambition
This is an enormously ambitious project, bringing this lost masterpiece back to life on the anniversary of its first performance, Good Friday.
With the help of contributions from you and other music lovers, we can help Bach’s lost Passion to take its rightful place in the canon of great sacred choral works.
We want to publish the complete reconstruction, so that other groups can perform the work in the future. The original score will be lodged in the archives of the RWCMD along with Andrew Wilson-Dickson’s working notes, and a recording will be made, providing the fullest possible resource for future generations of Bach enthusiasts.
The reconstructionThere have been a number of previous reconstructions, some of them drawing on the music of Bach's near contemporaries, others simply omitting some of the music. None of these present an ‘authentic’ experience of the original performance, and that is our aim, with music newly composed in the style of the great master filling in all the gaps. As both a composer and early music specialist, Andrew Wilson-Dickson is ideally suited to this task. He says, "I imagine myself a pupil of Bach, helping him out in a moment of stress, when the demands and managerial attitudes of the Leipzig Town Council were becoming impossible, added to the needs of a burgeoning family."
The performanceFor this monumental performance, we have engaged the services of the Welsh Baroque Orchestra and four renowned soloists, Sian Winstanley (soprano), Catherine King (mezzo), Peter Wilman (tenor), and Stephen Hamnett (bass). The performance will take place in the magnificent Dora Stoutzker Hall at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff, Wales, on Good Friday 2016 (25 March). Details on concert-diary.com. ![]()
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What We Need & What You Get We aim to raise £4000 towards an estimated overall cost of £9000. The main costs will be venue hire (£1,000), orchestra and soloists (approximately £6,000) plus Director's fee, recording and publicity costs.
We hope to raise about £3250 directly through ticket sales. Although we have been able to attract small grants from the Welsh Arts Council in the past, we do not have any grant funding for this project. The current economic climate is very difficult and anyway current funding priorities do not include Early Music. The choir members themselves are determined that the concert will go ahead and their own personal contributions will help to cover any shortfall.
Our main ambition is to see the St Mark Passion, through this reconstruction, recognised and valued and therefore performed around the world. Our performance on the 25th March will, we hope, showcase this version of the Passion and encourage other choirs to add it to their repertoire. We feel that the best way to do this is to make a high quality downloadable performing edition available online at a very reasonable cost, through the choral music publishers
Canasg Music. For the purposes of the crowd-funding campaign we are offering a few bound scores together with a limited number of a recordings of the live performance.
The Welsh Camerata has an impressive track record of reviving lost works from past centuries. Our specialism has led us to rediscover a number of forgotten masterpieces, performing them for the first time in Wales since their composition.
At the same time we have encouraged the creation and performance of new music. Most recently we commissioned the composition of an entirely new oratorio, 'Karuna', written by Andrew Wilson-Dickson, which we performed with soloists Emma Kirkby, Ian Yemm and Paul Carey Jones.
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Our aim is to use the unique dual skills of our director, Andrew Wilson-Dickson as early music specialist and composer, combined with the abilities of the singers in a fabulous venue to champion this sublime work.
The performance will be a springboard to encourage other choirs to add this work to their repertoire.
Risks & Challenges
For some 'purists', unless a work is 100% authentic i.e. all Bach's work, they will not feel that it should be performed at all. While recognising that this will not be the original St Mark Passion of 1731, nonetheless we feel that it will give the opportunity for sublime music, which deserves to be heard in the intended setting, to become better known and appreciated.
This reconstruction is a skilful blend of Bach's own music with fresh and vivid music that Andrew Wilson-Dickson has composed, informed by his deep knowledge and understanding of music from this period. It is not a mere academic exercise, but a genuinely dramatic setting for the re-telling of the Easter story.
We have a loyal following, but our concerts are generally on a smaller scale in churches in and around Cardiff. Thus our reputation, while very good, is quite local. We hope that we can generate sufficient excitement around this project in the lead up to the performance, which will help to ensure both a good audience and also act as a springboard for wider recognition of the St Mark Passion a major choral work, which deserves to be heard regularly.
The Perks
To encourage music lovers and choristers everywhere to support the project, we are offering a range of perks (to suit all sizes of pocket!)
You are of course very welcome to contribute any amount you like, whether or not you would want to claim a perk!
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Other Ways You Can Help
We very much hope that you will want to contribute to this unique project by backing us and/or coming to hear the concert. Whether or not you contribute you can spread the word using Indiegogo's share tools -
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Even if you can't attend in person or can't spare any of your hard earned cash, please tell all your friends about the lost Bach Passion - rediscovered in Cardiff on Good Friday 2016.
