The Great Passion
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The Great Passion
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Narrated by:
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Pip Torrens
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By:
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James Runcie
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents The Great Passion by James Runcie, read by Pip Torrens.
A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
'A masterpiece' SCOTSMAN
'A wise, refreshing novel, and a touching human story ... Runcie has an expert imagination' HILARY MANTEL
Love and Death.
Grief and Joy.
Music that lasts forever.
Leipzig, 1726. Eleven-year-old Stefan Silbermann, a humble organ-maker’s son, has just lost his mother. Sent to Leipzig to train as a singer in the St Thomas Church choir, he struggles to stay afloat in a school where the teachers are as casually cruel as the students.
Stefan’s talent draws the attention of the Cantor – Johann Sebastian Bach. Eccentric, obsessive and kind, he rescues Stefan from the miseries of school by bringing him into his home as an apprentice. Soon Stefan feels that this ferociously clever, chaotic family is his own. But when tragedy strikes, Stefan’s period of sanctuary in their household comes to a close.
Something is happening, though. In the depths of his loss, the Cantor is writing a new work: the Saint Matthew Passion, to be performed for the first time on Good Friday. As Stefan watches the work rehearsed, he realises he is witness to the creation of one of the most extraordinary pieces of music that has ever been written.
‘Brilliant ... Readers will be enriched by this novel and its glimpse at genius’ The Times, Historical Fiction of the Month
‘Warmly, reverently, Runcie brings alive what it is like to take part, for the very first time, in one of the most extraordinary pieces of music ever written’ Daily Telegraph
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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.
A delightful novel filled with warmth, music, and an obvious love of Bach.
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