World premiere: Bent Sørensen: St John PassionCréation mondiale

Bent Sørensen presents his new St John Passion, commissioned by the festival. The first part, which had its premiere in 2025, ends with the crucifixion of Jesus. The second part moves to the story of Mary Magdalene spreading the good news of the resurrection on Easter Day. Sørensen creates a textual counter-point between fragments from the Gospel of John and other sources. Among these we find apocryphal texts such as The Secret Book of John and the gospels of Thomas, Mary, and Philip. In addition, Sørensen incorporates ballad lyrics from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance related to the Passion. Central in the work is the figure of Mary Magdalene, woven together with Sørensen’s recurring theme word “light”.

Sørensen describes the work as “a beautiful and delicate work” for five voices and five strings, in line with the festival’s thematic focus on church music in the 21st century. In keeping with our time’s serial culture, the work is composed in two parts: at the concert, the passion is performed in its entirety, with the world premiere of the work’s second part. The work is performed by the Theatre of Voices and a quintet from Ensemble Allegria, under the direction of legendary conductor Paul Hillier.