March 31st. Johann Sebastian Bach’s birthday. Last day of Women’s History Month. Holy Week for Christians. Today’s Beautiful Music offerings celebrate the convergence of these events, with excerpts of Bach’s Passion Music performed by some remarkable women. There’s multi-tasking contralto Nathalie Stutzmann, who sings the solo and conducts Orfeo 55 and violinist Satomi Watanabe in their performance of Ebarme Dich, mein Gott from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. There’s also multi-tasking Jeannette Sorrell, who plays chamber organ while conducting the group she founded, Apollo’s Fire, in a dramatic presentation of Bach’s St. John Passion. And you’ll see a choreographed version of the St. Matthew Passion, from a project the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart did with a hundred schoolchildren, teaching them dance as an artistic form of self-expression to experience the power of his music.
(69) J. S. Bach: St. Matthew Passion – Gaechinger Cantorey, Hans-Christoph Rademann – DVD – YouTube