Masaaki Suzuki: belief

Transcript context

…Do you think of St. John’s Passion as a Christian work, or you conduct it as a Lutheran work, or drawing from a particular gospel? How do you think about that theologically? My point of view is that the St. John’s Passion — we are doing this work as just simple, general sacred music, sacred work. We are performing this music not in the liturgy anymore, and we are doing it in the concert. There are plenty of ways to accept or receive or appreciate this music. We are doing it simply as musicians, to do our best, to do, sound-wise and text-wise, everything as good as possible. I think the music can work afterwards to the individuals according to their situation or thoughts. Your own background is Calvinist. Does that in any way shape how you approach the work?…

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