La Pasión según San Marcos (Golijov)
| St. Mark Passion | |
|---|---|
| Passion by Osvaldo Golijov | |
| Period | Contemporary classical music |
| Composed | 2000 |
| Performed | 9 May 2000: Liederhalle, Stuttgart |
| Published | 2006 |
| Publisher | Boosey & Hawkes |
| Duration | 87 minutes |
| Movements | 34 |
| Scoring | Orchestra, chorus, and soloists |
La Pasión según San Marcos (St. Mark Passion) is a contemporary classical composition by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. It was finished in 2000 and is amongst Golijov's most well known compositions. It is famous for combining several Latin and African musical styles.
The work was commissioned by Helmuth Rilling, from the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart in 1996 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach. It was initially conceived to pay homage to Bach's St Matthew Passion, as part of a project called Passion 2000, in which Wolfgang Rihm, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Tan Dun also took part. All of the composers were asked to write their own version of the Passion, as long as they used the text.
At first, Golijov refused to take part in the project, because the Passion was meant to be a Christian composition, while Golijov himself was Jewish. Even though he was commissioned the composition in 1996, he started composing it two years later, while he studied the New Testament and the Catholic tradition. When Golijov presented the composition in rehearsals, Rilling himself asked him if "it was a Passion", for he was very surprised about the result.
The premiere took place in Stuttgart's Liederhalle in September 5, 2000. For that performance, María Guinand conducted the Orquesta La Pasión and the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, Luciana Souza and Reynaldo Fernández had the role of Afro-Cuban vocalist, while Samia Ibrahim played the soprano. It was greeted with a 25-minute standing ovation. The US premiere took place in Symphony Hall, Boston, and had the same performers except for the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Robert Spano.
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