Markus Zwink - Passionsspiele Oberammergau 2022 (2022) [Official Digital Download]

"The music should drive the play" - that is the top priority in his workshop. Markus Zwink has been musical director and conductor for four Passion Play decades. During this time, he has increasingly acted as composer; when there is a need for text, he is also replacing the librettist for the first time for 2022. That wasn't always the case: "I can still remember how I rewrote a transition in a musical number in 1990. Eight bars only, but I had real qualms about it, it was all so sacred and so predetermined and so determined." But a change had to come - that was already clear to him ten years earlier. In the 1980 play, Markus Zwink is the bass soloist, Christian Stückl sings in the chorus - "and we both thought that it couldn't really go on like that, because it just felt like a repetition of 1970, 1960, 1950". Six years later, there was an "almost landslide turnaround" - and finally the opportunity to take action himself.

Zwink's cautious liberation, however, did not come until Passion 2000: "Then I had the feeling, okay, now I'll try it myself and maybe I can do it … at least as well as the Dedler. Dedler was a teacher in Oberammergau more than 200 years ago and composed recitatives, arias and choruses to accompany the "Living Pictures" as early as 1811. With the text changes of 1815, Rochus Dedler once again created a completely new Passion Play music. Zwink now leans on their sound picture. He expands the harmonic spectrum even further and also incorporates the architectural features of the large Passion stage into his compositional concept. For the Passion 2010, he creates a new, powerful moment of tension through choral passages in Hebrew, and oriental sounds through certain chordal combinations. The musical director has continued to think in this direction for 2020/22. "It's a constant working on it."

The tendency to integrate Hebrew texts into the singing is to be strengthened, because the supposedly foreign touches, connects, opens. "The Old Testament pieces in particular, after all, often convey themselves not through the brain, but through feeling: the audience realizes that the themes in the story specifically tailored to one people are actually themes that could happen in some other form all over the world."

Few members of the Passion Choir have canceled for 2022 because they have changed careers or started college. There was an audition in July 2021 "to also give a chance to the young people who are now, after two years, developmentally ready." The music helps tell the Passion story - this fascinating feeling will be experienced by both the new and established singers and instrumentalists in the coming weeks. Currently, Zwink is rehearsing with the newcomers in small groups. "Our youthful singers are amateurs who need to be familiarized with Passion music; nearly an hour and a half of choral music must be presented by heart and with confidence. This requires a fair amount of advance time for each chorister." The experienced soloists have additionally sung the Passion music for practice videos, so that everyone can also prepare well at home and hone difficult passages.

Tracklist:
01. Dedler, Zwink: Ouvertüre, Lebendes Bild: Die Vertreibung aus dem Paradies, Einzug Jesu in Jerusalem
02. Zwink: Lebendes Bild: Die Erniedrigung der Israeliten
03. Zwink: Sch'ma Israel / Das Gebet im Tempel
04. Zwink: Lebendes Bild: Das Rote Meer
05. Zwink: Lebendes Bild: Der brennende Dornbusch
06. Zwink: Nach dem Abendmahl
07. Dedler, Zwink: Lebendes Bild: Der Prophet Daniel in der Löwengrube
08. Dedler, Zwink: Lebendes Bild: Die Verspottung des Hiob
09. Zwink: Der Auftritt des Hohen Rates
10. Dedler, Zwink: Lebendes Bild: Kain und Abel
11. Dedler, Zwink: Lebendes Bild: Joseph deutet Pharaos Traum
12. Dedler, Zwink: Lebendes Bild: Isaaks Opferung auf dem Berg Moria
13. Zwink: Der Kreuzweg
14. Zwink: Die Kreuzabnahme
15. Dedler: Die Grablegung
16. Dedler: Die Auferstehung


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