On Good Friday, April 3, 2026, J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion will be performed for the fourth time at St. John’s Church in Gouda. The Baroque orchestra Cappella Maria Barbara, Collegium Sint-Jan, and a team of top-tier soloists, led by conductor Gerben Budding, guarantee a world-class performance in the most beautiful setting imaginable. Surrounded by the Gouda Glasses, you can enjoy Bach’s great Passion.
Conductor Gerben Budding on the performance: “The choir section of St. John’s Church in Gouda is an ideal setting for a performance of Bach’s masterpiece, both visually and acoustically. It is possible, just as it was back then in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, to create a spatial arrangement in which the soprano in the ripieno part sings from the side of the choir screen, while the rest of the ensemble stands on the high choir.’
Performers
Collegium Sint-Jan Choir , Kampen Boys Choir
Cappella Maria Barbara Orchestra
Evangelist Jan van Elsacker
Christ Kees Jan de Koning
Soprano Noëlle Drost
Alto Anne-Marieke Evers
Tenor Falco van Loon
Bass Michiel Meijer
Conductor Gerben Budding
A performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion on Good Friday at the Janskerk in Gouda is the highlight of the year for my orchestra. It is also the last Passion music we perform this season.
Over the years, the composition of Cappella Maria Barbara has become more international, but what continues to unite us is our great love for Bach’s music and the passion with which we motivate one another to make each performance something special. The continuo players form the solid foundation upon which the entire Passion music is built. The lute, to which Bach had assigned a solo role in the early version of the St. Matthew Passion, is now always part of the continuo group. Among the other instrumentalists, Barbara Erdner deserves special mention; with her solo part in the aria “Erbarme Dich,” she always manages to strike a chord.
Henk van Zonneveld ( Artistic Director, Cappella Maria Barbara)
Information
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