S2.E39. One from the archives, with an addition: Bach's St Matthew Passion and the finale of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony,

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The word pinnacle has also come to represent the highest point of development or achievement in a particular field. That in turn suggests that some length appeared before the pinnacle is reached. So it may seem strange to refer to a piece of music, which is now nearly 300 years old as being the pinnacle of all music. But that, in my view anyway, is what the Semantic Passion by Johannes Matthew Bach represents. And yes, that includes the written cycle by Wagner. I came to this place quite late, some twenty-five years ago, on the introduction of a friend, with whom I would accidentally make an annual pilgrimage to the Royal Festival Hall on the weekend before Easter. More recently, it's become a tradition with my wife, who was completely captivated on her first hearing by the stunning music. Even more so than the folly recognition which we had earlier this week. You are able to cast aside any views you may have on Christianity. Although the painter Roger Fry once observed that the Bach almost persuaded him to be Christian. There is no mention here of eternal life. It is the tragic tale of an innocent man betrayed, wrongfully arrested, and executed. That alone makes it a story relevant to our times because the same thing continues to happen in many parts of the world two thousand years later. It is a matter of fairly reliable historical fact. It will happen on a third day that called it all the day. It's because of that. Every time I've attended a life of a moment, I've been aware of sitting amongst hundreds of people. And yet, like everybody else, in the ordinary having my own personal experience of what is my brain. Grief, after all, is not really something we can share with others because our grief is our own. There are parts where you may weep or be a very closer. And it's really embarking on a joint and very individual journey of what it is to experience grief, which is conveyed in the opening chorus. We're being invited to participate. It almost feels as if a train is pulling out of the station, just as it feels we have arrived at our destination at the very end of the piece, nearly three hours later, with a huge reluctance to disembark. So here is the opening chorus. Come here, daughters, help me lament. Having seen and watched them for so many years, I'm sticking with David Wilcox and the Bar choir. Off we go. As soon as this moment comes, we get this aria break in grief, where Bach starts to raise their emotional temperature. This is our first real taste of the grief which comes with betrayal. It's not just in the voice of Alfreda Hodgson, but in the sighing of the orchestra as well. As if betrayal was not bad enough. Simon Peter, the first disciple, insist that he would rather die than deny any knowledge of his master. Whereupon Jesus predicted one of his disciples' increasing frustration that before the cock crowded, he would have denied him three times. Either side of this exchange, we have this contrasting and profoundly comforting chorale. The voice of the evangelist, the narrator of our story, is sung by Robert Tyr, Simon Peter by Neil Jenkins, and Christ by Stephen Roberts.

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In so shall I be never offended. And likewise also said all the disciples.

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We move forward in the story now. Jesus has been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and taken away to be tried. Outside, Simon Peter is challenged by three separate groups that they have seen him with Jesus, and three times he denies it. The cock arrows as predicted, and Simon Peter is immediately wrecked with guilt. But the solo violin singing alongside is a master stroke. It's an element like no other, and one of the most beautiful passages in the whole work. At this point, the music stopped for a moment of silent reflection. And in that moment, whether you're a Christian or not, the gravity of an innocent man traditionally murdered can be deeply moving. And then almost out of nowhere, you get one of those moments of music which is so utterly exquisite. And those surrounding the cross acknowledge truly this was the Son of God. Beethoven describe Bach as the immortal god of harmony, and it's all there in just thirty seconds.

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And the rocks were raised, and the craves were and there was a many parties of the holy ones that were seen, and came out of the graves after Jesus' resurrection, and went into the holy city, and was seen by many after centuries, and they that were with him, keeping watch over Jesus. And he looked on the earthway and those things that were done.

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It also been dramatically.

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My life last year.

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I mentioned in my introduction that I wanted to add something at the end today. As I alluded to in that episode, the fact that the man called Jesus Christ.