Ensemble Vox Luminis & L’Achéron

Lionel Meunier, Artistic Director

Matthäus Passion– Johann Sebastiani
Requiem – Johann Caspar Kerll

Another version of the Passion story

He almost shared his name with Johann Sebastian Bach: Johann Sebastiani. Half a century before Bach’s iconic St Matthew Passion, this German composed his own version of the Passion. In his compact St Matthew Passion, Sebastiani set an important trend with the addition of Lutheran chorales. The evangelist as tenor and Christ as bass will also sound familiar to anyone who knows Bach’s passions.

Sebastiani’s contemporary Johann Kaspar Kerll wrote a requiem mass ‘for the peace of my soul’. It was written for an ensemble of five voices, supported by a gamba quartet. This intimate requiem full of emotions perfectly completes this Baroque diptych.