Last night I popped my Carnegie Hall cherry and saw their festival chorus presentation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Stern Auditorium is quite majestic, and I enjoyed my balcony view perspective of the stage and the other balconies. Good people watching.
It struck me that though longer, part 2 of the Passion seemed to move faster than part 1. My friend Donovan burned me Klemperer’s version back in grad school after I wrote an essay called “The Calling of Saint Matthew” and I’m listening to it now. I thought my father (he’s a retired Lutheran minister) would be all over the fact I went, but he admitted to me he’s never heard Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion. Still, it was nostalgic to hear that one hymn that’s repeated throughout; in the green hymnal we used growing up, the Lutheran Book of Worship, it is known as “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.” Brought back Sunday mornings from my childhood. The first appearance of it was at 15 in part 1, “Erkenne mich, mein Huter.”
Perhaps it’s time to revisit that essay…