TRACK LIST:
CD 1: PASSION
(total time 52:58)
1. liturgy (2:53)
2. scene 1: judas and caiphas (2:36)
3. scene 2: judas' betrayal (2:14)
4. scene 3: peter and malchus (1:40)
5. scene 4: jesus before caiphas (4:53)
6. scene 5: peter's denial (3:00)
7. scene 6: judas' repentance (1:48)
8. scene 7: jesus before pilate (6:37)
9. scene 8: dialogue of procula's maid with pilate and procula (4:15)
10. scene 9: jesus before pilate (4:05)
11. scene 10: jesus in the praetorium (1:48)
12. procession: jesus is brought to calvary and is crucified (8:21)
13. scene11: death of jesus and deposition from the cross (8:36)

CD 2: RESURRECTION
(total time 31:57)
1. scene 12: the resurrection garden (23:14)
2. liturgy and dispersal (8:40)

Jonathan Harvey 'Passion and Resurrection'

Genre: contemporary opera

Set for sixteen characters, small chorus and chamber orchestra, Jonathan Harvey's 'Passion & Resurrection' is a BBC live performance recording of The BBC Singers and Sinfonia 21 conducted by Martin Neary and featuring baritone Stuart MacIntyre as Jesus.

The work was commissioned by Martin Neary in 1981 for performance as a diocesan community celebration, by largely local singers in Winchester Cathedral. It was produced by the late bishop of Winchester, John V. Taylor whose involvement prompted a BBC television documentary 'The Challenge of the Passion'.

By reviving the practice of Latin church dramas where the audience or congregation participates in the singing of the plainsong hymns, Harvey emphasizes the ritualistic rather than conventionally operatic nature of the work. The music and instrumentation reflects the division between the austere, dark, male-dominated of music Passion and the florid, bright, female-dominated Resurrection. Thus a long journey, from chant to song, is taken.

This a truly monumental work by Harvey which nevertheless retains all the emotional nuances required by the narrative. With 'Passion and Resurrection' Harvey reaches out and touches the sublime.

Credits:
The first performance of PASSION AND RESURRECTION was given at Winchester Cathedral on 21 March 1981, conducted by Martin Neary and produced by John Taylor, Bishop of Winchester

This recording was made by the BBC of a live performance in St.John's, Smith Square, London, on 22nd March 1999.

Produced by Jonathan Harvey and Daniel Biro
BBC Producer: Michael Emery
BBC Recording Engineer: Simon Hancock
Text 1981 by Faber Music Ltd

Reviews:
'... a brilliant and often moving retelling of Christ's Passion in the spirit of an ancient liturgical drama...' (BBC Music Magazine)

'Jonathan Harvey�fs ability to combine chant-like idioms (and actual plainchant hymnody) within a predominantly atonal context is quite uncanny.' (Gramophone)

'... the sound of dispersing brasses leading the congregation back into the world after the final Amen is a masterstroke...' (The Wire)

'Passion and Resurrection is without doubt an outstanding sacred work of the 20th century.' (Choir & Organ)

'The rapt performance conveys much of the grandeur of Harvey's conception and its slow, controlled movement from dark sonorities and chant-based musical idiom to the final, Messiaen-like radiance' (The Sunday Times)