27/03/2025
Exactly one year ago, on the 27th of March 2024, more than five-hundred people gathered in Sablon to hear our very first concert and to mark the tricentenary of J.S. Bach’s “Johannes-Passion”. This project was, for many of our musicians, the very first contact with the “Passion”, and one that attuned us to the expressive power Bach bestowed to the text through his compositional artistry, a discovery that helped us understand the emotional, rhetorical, and, above all, human dimensions of his musical language. Each instrumentalist became as aware of the text as the singers, and the beginning of the final chorale came with a collective emotional sensation I still cannot quite fathom to this day.
Just one year before that, I was at the harpsichord in my small flat in Brussels playing and singing the work from the score with a string tied around my big left toe and contra-G to replicate the full ensemble texture of “Herr, unser Herrscher” – Brussels, I feel, has this mystical ability to allow beautiful things to come out of the most modest ideas. Looking back, it seems almost miraculous to me that such a project flourished with absolutely no money involved at all – these days, since our second and third projects, we are beginning to realise how precious that first project really was. The unbelievable kindness of our supporters and mentors including Sigiswald, as well as that of our wonderfully attentive and enthusiastic audience is still fuelling our desire to continue this work – we thank you all for your support and very much look forward to bringing you more. (Tetsu Isaji)
