Instrumentation
baritone soloist, SATB choir, piano duet, percussion (2 players) and string orchestra
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Other Information
The story of the death and resurrection of Christ
Commissioned by the Wolverhampton Civic Choir for first performance on 3rd April 1993, with Brian Rayner Cook and the Orchestra da Camera, under the direction of David Hart.
´Two triumphant premieres in three days! After Thursday´s success of his eloquent Third Symphony, Andrew Downes heard his deeply affecting St Luke Passion given on Saturday by the Wolverhampton Civic Choir (who commissioned it) in the elegant and accommodating Parish Church.
´Scored for string orchestra, percussion and piano duet, the work also calls for a baritone soloist singing the words of Christ.
´Brian Rayner Cook performed with gentle sincerity, quietly commanding in these grateful melodic lines. Many of Downes´ well-loved fingerprints are here, not least the music circling round a note before coming to rest on it, and now, too, his recent, striking discovery of independent multi-tempi.
´... the music´s drama as it progressed to a moving sense of exaltation touched us all.´
THE BIRMINGHAM POST
In November 1993 Andrew Downes was invited by the Crane Concert Choir of the University of New York to conduct them in the first American performance of this work. The choir has a tradition for inviting composers to conduct their works with them. Composers to be invited have included Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland.
Performed for the 10th anniversary of the Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham by Bryan Rayner Cook with the Birmingham Conservatoire Choir and Orchestra conducted by Steven Lloyd.
´Judas Mercator Pessimus´ and ´Tenebrae Factae Sunt´ from the work were performed at King´s Chapel, Boston, Massachusetts, on August 22nd 2006 by the Millennium Scholars directed by Paula Downes.
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