Bent Sørensen: St Matthew Passion

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Sørensen’s melodic gifts imbue the score, giving the entire work a marvelous sense of fluidity. The performances are superb, and the spacious recorded sound seems designed to enhance a sense... — Fanfare, Sep/Oct 2023 More…

Release Date: 7th Apr 2023
Catalogue No: BIS2611
Label: BIS
Length: 65 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

July 2023

Editor's Choice
Gramophone Magazine

Critics' Choice 2023

In stock

Usually despatched within 1 working day

Sørensen, B: St. Matthew Passion

Work length1:05:27

$12.55

$18.95

The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, Ensemble Allegria
Grete Pedersen

I. In veils of mist

Track length10:52

$1.50

$2.30

Ii. Betania

Track length4:00

$1.00

$1.50

Iii. Psalm

Track length4:06

$1.00

$1.50

Iv. Wild Nights

Track length6:26

$1.00

$1.50

V. Crucifixus

Track length9:05

$1.50

$2.30

Vi. Lament

Track length11:13

$2.05

$3.05

Vii. Tenebrae

Track length4:29

$1.00

$1.50

Viii. Magdalena

Track length5:43

$1.00

$1.50

Ix. The shore again, Galilee

Track length2:10

$1.00

$1.50

X. Into the Mist

Track length7:23

$1.50

$2.30

About
Reviews
Explore

About

"To mark Oslo International Church Music Festival’s anniversary in 2020, a new St Matthew Passion was commissioned from Bent Sørensen, one of northern Europe’s most performed and admired composers and winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Music in 2018. The première was postponed owing to the pandemic and had to wait the following year for a streamed world première that reached a large number of listeners and viewers throughout Europe. The libretto [in English] was curated by Jakob Holtze and is made of fragments of the Gospels of Matthew and John, traditional mass texts, as well as poetry by six authors, three of them women. In his work, Sørensen says, ‘lies a love passion. Not only Christ’s love declaration to all humankind, through crucifixion and resurrection, but also a simple and beautiful love. The passion for the people we love.’ Sørensen’s St Matthew Passion is performed by the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and Ensemble Allegria under the direction of Grete Pedersen, a musical partnership that has resulted in several award-winning recordings for BIS over the years."

Reviews

Sep/Oct 2023

Sørensen’s melodic gifts imbue the score, giving the entire work a marvelous sense of fluidity. The performances are superb, and the spacious recorded sound seems designed to enhance a sense of spirituality, eschewing sharp edges and crisp detail. This is a momentous achievement for all concerned, a contemporary masterpiece of religious choral music.

July 2023

It’s a virtuoso account of a piece that takes the spirit of Bach and says something quite new.

Bent Sørensen: St Matthew Passion

SACD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue