'My aim was to be expressive; to elevate, construe and enhance the Passion within the context of these new poems.' Torsten Rasch

As well as providing the libretto for Torsten Rasch’s next opera Die Andere Frau (and inspiring his dramatic Violin Concerto Tropoi), Helmut Krausser has also been pivotal in a new work commissioned by the RIAS Kammerchor. Scored for SATB choir and solo cello, and setting texts by Krausser, Seven takes the form of interpolations in the St Luke Passion by Heinrich Schütz. The choir premiered the 17-minute work with cellist Anna Carewe at the Schütz Musikfest, Weißenfels, in October. Justin Doyle conducted.

 

‘Schütz’ Lukas-Passion is a masterwork of austerity and expressiveness’ writes Rasch. ‘According to the Secrets of Enoch (from the apocrypha), man was created using seven consistencies: Earth, Dew, Sun, Stone, Clouds, Grass and Wind. Within the Lukas-Passion there are statements that correspond to these elements and Helmut wrote poems dealing with them. My aim was to be expressive; to elevate, construe and enhance the Passion within the context of these new poems.