Alexandra Coghlan

Passion indeed

Plus: an awkward Tallis ‘premiere’ at St John’s Smith Square courtesy of Alamire

  • St John Passion – Britten Sinfonia/Mark Padmore

    St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich

  • Thomas Tallis: Songs of Reformation – Alamire/David Skinner

    St John’s Smith Square, London

‘The dripping blood our only drink/ The bloody flesh our only food…/ Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.’ In spite of that. Anglo-Catholic convert T.S. Eliot knew a thing or two about Easter. The Passion story might end with resurrection and redemption, but it’s a celebration that we achieve in spite of agony, torture and abandonment, a tale whose root lies in the Latin ‘passio’, meaning suffering.

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