The Great Passion

a beautiful and graceful book. I have learnt a lot. I have even listened to J. S. Bach's music The Passion.

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Passion decoded.

A short insight into many aspects of the 18-century life and the world of church music in Germany as seen by a young student of J. S. Bach. The story is compelling and well researched, shockingly honest as well as sweetly sentimental. One does not have to be a musician to enjoy it, however, if you are one, then it's a must. Narration is exceptional. Unputdownable listen.

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First class story on the work of Bach as told through the eyes of a young soprano.

This is a beautiful novel; the mood, characters, music and most of all narration by the ever wonderful Pip Torrens made this not only an education on the music of the time but dealt on so many levels with grief and passion.

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Outstanding reading

Many thanks to Pip Torrens for a fine, intelligent and versatile reading of this absorbing account of working as a young singer under the tuition of JS Bach. The different characters are vividly dramatised.

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1 person found this helpful

A delightful novel filled with warmth, music, and an obvious love of Bach.

Leipzig, 1726 and eleven year old Stefan Silbermann, the son of an organ maker, having just lost his mother is sent to train with St Thomas Church choir. He initially struggles and is subject to bullying and the cruelty of the teachers. However he has a talent and this draws the attention of the Cantor Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach is obsessive, eccentric and deeply religious but he is also kind and takes Stefan on, initially as an apprentice and then as a soloist, rescuing him from his miserable life at the school. During this time Bach encounters a personal tragedy of his own and also embarks on writing a new work, the Saint Matthew Passion, to be performed for the first time on Good Friday. Consequently Stefan witnesses the creation of one of the most famous pieces of music that has ever been written.

Through Stefan James Runcie gives us a intimate view of Bach and his family populating his story with well thought out skillfully drawn characters. I particularly liked Christian Friedrich Henrici, who refers to himself as Picander, the poet and liberalist, who worked with Bach on the Passion. He injects humour into what is at times a somber, albeit ultimately a joyous story. It is a story deep set in religion and Bach does have a tendency to sermonise, ‘It is healthy to be afraid as long as our chief fear is God’. There is the odd dip in the story where it didn’t hold my interest as well but these are few, ultimately though it is the characterisations that holds it together and helped maintain my engagement. It is on the whole a busy story.

It is delightful novel filled with warmth, music, and an obvious love of Bach. It wasn’t my love of Saint Matthew’s Passion, Bach or choral music in general that attracted me to this book. Although I like some classical music I don’t listen to a great deal of it and I had never listened to Saint Matthew’s Passion. I was just looking for something a bit different, something outside my normal reading habits and Runcie’s book interested me. On the whole I wasn’t disappointed. It isn’t overtly sentimental or glib, it is a well balanced story of fear, guilt and grief and how both Stefan and Bach come to terms with these. Runcie also paints a vivid picture of the times from the heavily religious Bach household to the school and its casual cruelty and the people on the streets, the smells and the sights. There is a particularly graphic description of an execution that isn’t just harrowing but also provides a contrasting view of a man who is to be beheaded against the attitudes of the people towards him and that of Christ’s crucifixion that is to be depicted by Bach’s great work. ‘If Christ returned would he instil the same reaction?’ There is also a secondary story of Stefan’s love for Bach’s daughter Caterina which offers an alternative ‘passion’.

As The Great Passion roles on it builds up to the crescendo of the finale, the Good Friday concert in which Bach reveals his great work. This is the best part of Runcie’s book the attention to detail here is superb, the stress Bach must have felt is palpable.

Not being familiar with Saint Matthew’s Passion I listened to it for the first time while reading this. Whenever I read, or in this case listen to, books about music I always feel the book has done it’s job if it makes you want to listen to the music it portrays, in this the Passion worked for me. The Great Passion is obviously a labour of love and Runcie’s enthusiasm for his subject is plain to see. It is a well told story that conveys what it must have been like to sing, play and hear Bach’s music at the time of its creation.

The Great Passion is a lovely piece of historical fiction, Runcie takes you back to Leipzig in 18th century Germany, you feel as you are there, you can almost hear the music. The only criticism I would make is there are pockets where the story sags a little, he doesn’t manage to keep up the momentum perpetually throughout. But despite that it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of the book and by the end you do feel as if you’ve witnessed a piece of history, you feel as if you were there.

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4 people found this helpful

SO ENJOYED THIS TITLE

As a musician and music fan I was surprised and delighted to get a thoroughly believable account of a portion of the great JS Bach's life, from the point of view of one of his students. I was gripped right to the end and thought it both credible and full of detailed knowledge of the life and times. Lovely narration, too.

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A surprisingly riveting listen. Highly recommended

An insight into the (possible) life of a chorister in Leipzig in the 1700s, taken under his wing by Sebastian Bach and family. Touching, sad and beautiful in equal measure.

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Wonderful musical insights

An enjoyable imagining of Bach and the writing of his moving masterwork. Brings to life the time period and offers so many fresh ways to think about music and music makers whether composers, musicians or singers

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The Master

I have felt that I have met the great master my favourite musician of all time thank you 🙏🏾

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Beautifully written

This was a wonderful sensitively written novel about a fascinating man in a year of his life. As a singer who has performed the Matthew Passion several times it was of particular interest to me.

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