Concert Diary 2026
The Little Match Girl Passion
Passiontide music by David Lang, Bach, Barber and others
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Jubilate Chamber Choir presents composer David Lang's mesmerising and Pulitzer Prize-winning work for chorus and percussion-playing vocal soloists. Through fifteen thought-provoking movements, Lang retells the heartbreaking story by Hans Christian Anderson through the lens and framework of a Bach Passion; a transformation that draws the listener into the action, inviting them to reflect deeply on the nature of suffering. Lang's music will be paired with Passiontide works by Bach, Barber, Casals, Victoria and others.
Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion Bach: Ich lasse dich nicht Casals: O vos omnes Victoria: O vos omnes Anerio: Christus factus est Barber: Agnus Dei Nystedt: Immortal Bach |
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In the words of David Lang himself:
"My piece is called The Little Match Girl Passion and it sets Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Little Match Girl in the format of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, interspersing Andersen’s narrative with my versions of the crowd and character responses from Bach’s Passion. The text is by me, after texts by Han Christian Andersen, H. P. Paulli (the first translator of the story into English, in 1872), Picander (the nom de plume of Christian Friedrich Henrici, the librettist of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion), and the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. The word ”passion” comes from the Latin word for suffering. There is no Bach in my piece and there is no Jesus—rather the suffering of the Little Match Girl has been substituted for Jesus’s, elevating (I hope) her sorrow to a higher plane."
"What drew me to The Little Match Girl is that the strength of the story lies not in its plot but in the fact that all its parts—the horror and the beauty—are constantly suffused with their opposites. The girl’s bitter present is locked together with the sweetness of her past memories; her poverty is always suffused with her hopefulness. There is a kind of naive equilibrium between suffering and hope."
"My piece is called The Little Match Girl Passion and it sets Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Little Match Girl in the format of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, interspersing Andersen’s narrative with my versions of the crowd and character responses from Bach’s Passion. The text is by me, after texts by Han Christian Andersen, H. P. Paulli (the first translator of the story into English, in 1872), Picander (the nom de plume of Christian Friedrich Henrici, the librettist of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion), and the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. The word ”passion” comes from the Latin word for suffering. There is no Bach in my piece and there is no Jesus—rather the suffering of the Little Match Girl has been substituted for Jesus’s, elevating (I hope) her sorrow to a higher plane."
"What drew me to The Little Match Girl is that the strength of the story lies not in its plot but in the fact that all its parts—the horror and the beauty—are constantly suffused with their opposites. The girl’s bitter present is locked together with the sweetness of her past memories; her poverty is always suffused with her hopefulness. There is a kind of naive equilibrium between suffering and hope."
Saturday 14th March
Pusey House Chapel
St. Giles
Oxford OX1 3LZ
Find on map
Tickets: £18 / £12 (students and under 18s)
TIckets available from Oxford Playhouse (01865 305305), Tickets Oxford or Eventbrite
Pusey House Chapel
St. Giles
Oxford OX1 3LZ
Find on map
Tickets: £18 / £12 (students and under 18s)
TIckets available from Oxford Playhouse (01865 305305), Tickets Oxford or Eventbrite
The Little Match Girl Passion
Passiontide music by David Lang, Bach, Barber and others
Jubilate Chamber Choir presents composer David Lang's mesmerising and Pulitzer Prize-winning work for chorus and percussion-playing vocal soloists. Through fifteen thought-provoking movements, Lang retells the heartbreaking story by Hans Christian Anderson through the lens and framework of a Bach Passion; a transformation that draws the listener into the action, inviting them to reflect deeply on the nature of suffering. Lang's music will be paired with Passiontide works by Bach, Barber, Casals, Victoria and others.
Sunday 22nd March
Douai Abbey
Upper Woolhampton
Reading
Berkshire
G7 5TQ
Find on map
Sunday 22nd March
Douai Abbey
Upper Woolhampton
Reading
Berkshire
G7 5TQ
Find on map
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