Modern Passions

When the lights in the Philharmonie began to dim, the orchestra and choir filed onto the stage as if this were just another normal performance; the only thing slightly out of the ordinary was a large, very bright light hanging at chest height over the centre of the stage. But at the very moment Sir Simon Rattle raised his baton, the whole choir fell to the ground and remained on their backs while the orchestra played the introductory bars of ‘Herr, unser Herrscher’, the stirring chorus which opens Bach’s Johannes-Passion. From that moment, it was clear that we were back in the strange alluring world of secret ritual that had been established by director Peter Sellars and the Berlin Philharmonic in their previous collaborative foray into the sacred music of Bach. The orchestra and Mr Sellars first worked together on a semi-staged…