Gregory Mulholland

Tonight, Kelly, Dominik (a guy from Kelly’s lab), and I went to see Jesus’ College Choir perform Bach’s St. John Passion. It is basically the Jesus’s Passion as told by the gospel of St. John set to music by Bach. It was a really great performance. Although it was certainly not an uplifting performance in terms of topic, the choir, orchestra, and soloists were clearly very talented. It was truly amazing how a group of maybe 20-25 singers could fill the entire chapel with pure sound. When they first started to sing, it was completely overwhelming. Over the course of the 2.5 hour concert, no one (that I noticed) missed a note. It was truly spectacular. Our companion Dominik, an Austrian and former choir singer, said that it was amazing how well he could understand the German as it was sung. The group clearly took great care to understand the words they were singing.

Interestingly, at no point did the choir show any emotion. Even at the end, rather than taking a bow, they simply turned and walked off stage. The other performers took short bows, but it was certainly not the protracted bow-and-bow-again that you see at musicals. Maybe it was the Lenten demeanor of the whole performance, or maybe it is just the style of real performers to stay reserved.

The soloists were all professional singers, some already nationally and internationally renown. It is amazing to think that there are 30 colleges here, most with choirs (Jesus is in the top 5 in terms of quality, if not higher), and they still can not only bring in great performers but also fill the seats of the large Jesus College Chapel. After Easter, we will definitely be attending more of these concerts at different colleges.