La Pasión según San Marcos

[TonyInATL]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 11:32pm

Chances are, you're not at all familiar with this new piece by Argentinian (now living in Boston) composer Osvaldo Golijov, but I had the pleasure of attending a performance of it last night at Emory University here in Atlanta by, among others, members of the Atlanta Symphony, conducted by Maestro Robert Spano. I'm not an especially religious person, but this performance of Mr. Golijov's interpretation of the St. Mark Passion was about as close to a religious experience for me as it gets.

I'm a "classical" music fan, and I love the old masters, but I also love the maverick composers; the Stravinskys, Ives(es), Reich's, Adams(es) and the like. Mainly because they don't live by the rules - they create art, and beautiful, dynamic art. Rules be damned. Mr. Golijov falls solidly into this category. La Pasion is an exciting, moving, soul-stirring work that employs a panoply of percussive Latin rhythms and dances, operatic arias, choreography and the incredible voices of the Schola Cantorum de Caracas to tell the story of the last days of Christ. It was really quite remarkable, and beautiful.

I'm not sure how ticket sales are going, but the exact same ensemble of musicians that performed the piece here will be giving two performances in the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center this coming Monday and Tuesday (1/20-21). If you get a chance, check it out, even if you're not a big classical fan. I think you'll really enjoy it.