{"id":38195,"date":"2024-01-11T18:02:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T17:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cbe9c0b5-d4fa-4972-8e6a-1d24ba5babb7"},"modified":"2024-01-17T17:41:14","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T16:41:14","slug":"best-pieces-of-classical-music-for-easter","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/best-pieces-of-classical-music-for-easter\/","title":{"rendered":"Best pieces of classical music for Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By BBC Music Magazine\n <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 11 January 2024 at 17:02 PM<\/p>

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For hundreds of years, composers have been inspired by the Easter story to write some of the most beautiful and heart-rending classical music ever created. <\/strong>Here are the best pieces of Easter classical music.<\/p>

Best Easter classical music<\/strong><\/h2>

1 Johann Sebastian Bach<\/a>: St Matthew Passion<\/strong><\/h3>

The St Matthew Passion<\/em><\/strong><\/a> is a masterpiece that many people know well, but few tire of hearing. One of only two JS Bach<\/strong> passion settings still in existence (the St John<\/em> is the only other to have survived), the piece was originally performed in Leipzig on Good Friday 1727, although the score as we know it dates from 1743-6.<\/p>

The work\u2019s two halves were originally intended to be sung on either side of the Good Friday sermon – a test of the piety of the most ardent churchgoers (even performances without<\/em> the sermon tend to last over two-and-a-half hours).<\/p>

So why do we love it so much? Could it be those intricate baroque figures that tug at the heartstrings? Or the effortless coupling of soli and chorus; of arioso with aria? Perhaps it\u2019s simply the sheer number of terrific tunes that litter the work.<\/p>

Best recording of Bach’s St Matthew Passion<\/h4>

John Eliot Gardiner’s version with the Monteverdi Choir<\/a><\/strong> and English Baroque Soloists<\/a><\/strong> remains one of our all-time favourite recordings of the work.<\/p>