Oratorio St Matthew Passion

The British premiere of the oratorio ‘St. Matthew Passion’ by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev will take place on 8 February 2015 at London’s prestigious Cadogan Hall. It promises to be one of the most significant events outside Russia presenting the musical heritage of the Orthodox Church, and will receive wide coverage in the British and Russian media.
For Metropolitan Hilarion the ‘St. Matthew Passion’ project has been not so much music as a mission. He hopes that the audience will be moved by the story and the emotions of its central characters, and leave the performance feeling spiritually uplifted.

The oratorio, which has already been heard in Moscow, Istanbul and at the Vatican, will be performed by the Moscow Synodal Choir under the direction of Alexei Puzakov. Celebrated for centuries throughout Russia, the choir was revived in 2009 by Metropolitan Hilarion who appointed Puzakov, an Honoured Artist of Russia, to take it forward into a new, exciting and creative phase.