About this concert
From 2026, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra will be a partner of the Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden for three years. The orchestra and its future chief conductor Klaus Mäkelä will be performing there every year during Easter week.
The Concertgebouw Orchestra’s annual Passion performance is one of the longest-running concert traditions in the world. In 1899, the orchestra’s then chief conductor Willem Mengelberg introduced the annual performance of Bach’s powerful St Matthew Passion around Easter. In the Netherlands, Bach’s St Matthew Passion has topped the favourites lists of classical music lovers for decades. Johann Sebastian Bach composed the Passion nearly 300 years ago in such an emotional and compelling way that it leaves few listeners unmoved.
Bach composed the Passion in such an emotional and compelling way that it leaves few listeners unmoved.
