Choir returns with Australian first

FOLLOWING their eighty-fifth anniversary season, the Australian Boys Choir is returning to Ballarat to perform Bach’s St Mark Passion with Genesis Baroque.

The performance will centre around a reconstruction of the lost St Mark Passion by Dutch musicologist Robert Koolstra.

This will be the 1744 version’s premiere in the Southern Hemisphere.

The performance forms part of a multi-year project where the choir will perform St John Passion in 2026 and culminate with a performance of the St Matthew Passion to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the work in conjunction with the visiting Hannover Boys Choir.

“It’s no secret that our singers have an affinity for Bach,” said artistic director Nicholas Dinopoulos.

“Singing his music in Germany back in 2018, in the very church in Leipzig where Bach is buried, still counts as a major highlight in the history of the ABCI.

“We’ve added more Bach to our repertoire since, and it will be terrific to welcome the Hannover singers in 2027.”

The libretto of the 1744 version of the St Mark Passion was found in 2011 in St Petersburg and it contains two extra arias which built upon the 1731 original.

In both cases the music was lost, however, in 1860 German composer and musicologist Wilhelm Rust saw similarities between Bach’s lost St Mark and Trauerode.

Robert Koolstra reconstructed the lost work and only the recitatives are not composed by Bach.

“The instrumentation is completely unique” Koolstra said.

“With parts for two flutes, two oboes d’amore – the lower mezzo-soprano variant of the instrument developed in Leipzig during Bach’s time, two violas da gamba plus lute and strings, the overall sonic effect is sublime.”

The performance will take place on Saturday 29 March at the Ballarat Central Uniting Church.

To purchase a ticket, visit the Australian Boys Choir website.