The Works

The Works begins this week with the dramatic opening chorus from Johann Sebastian Bach’s oratorio St John Passion, propelled by its agitated instrumental introduction and viscerally intense choral cries to Christ. Raphaël Pichon and the ace singers and period-instrument players of Pygmalion unleash its overwhelming power in their forthcoming recording of the complete work. “This chorus changed my life,” Pichon tells Apple Music Classical. “I started singing in a boys’ choir when I was 10, and this was the first piece I rehearsed with them. The shock of this music, this story, this journey from the first chorus to the last chorale, was enormous.” Christ’s brutal death on the cross and its necessity for the fulfilment of God’s plan to free humankind from the bonds of sin are reflected in the contrasts between despair and hope in “Herr, unser Herrscher” (“O Lord, our governor”) and the complex character of Bach’s music. “How wild, how violent, how savage is its beginning,” adds Pichon. “Then the choir enters in a totally different mode, the extreme opposite. That’s the yin and the yang, the Alpha and Omega. For me, this chemical reaction between these two worlds of black and white is the key to the whole work.” The Works features the best of the very latest classical releases. We regularly update this playlist, so if you find a piece of music or a performance you particularly love, don’t forget to add it to your library.