20.03.2026

JULIAN PRÉGARDIEN | Evangelist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Pygmalion

Julian Prégardien continues to be one of the world's most sought-after interpreters of Johann Sebastian Bach's Evangelist roles. The tenor has already appeared in Bach's Passions with top orchestras such as the Collegium Vocale Gent, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic and most recently last season with the award-winning Ensemble Pygmalion under their conductor Raphael Pichon. Freshly released on disc with Harmonia Mundi in March 2026, Prégardien’s stand-out performance has been described by Gramophone magazine as “completely mesmerising throughout […] with a tender religiosity at the heart”.

With the attention this year turning to Bach’s other principal passion, the St Matthew Passion, the listener is presented with a more introspective and meditative work, in which the role of the Evangelist in particular is more reflective and tender, tailored even more to Julian Prégardien's intimate interpretations of the text. At the same time, the Matthew Passion provides a richer, more varied soundscape with the use of a double orchestra and choir and opens with a monumental 8-part chorus that sets the scene of profound grief from the beginning.

This outstanding constellation of musicians and soloists appears once again this March until the poignant concluding concert on Good Friday in the Philharmonie de Paris. Encapsulated perfectly by the Wiener Konzerthaus, which hosts two of the concerts during the tour, “this performance shows Bach not as a distant icon, but as a living contemporary – a composer who sought the human in the divine. Pichon's St Matthew Passion is not a reconstruction, but an invitation to listen in the present.”


Cast

Julie Roset, soprano
Maïlys de Villoutreys, soprano
Lucile Richardot, alto
William Shelton, countertenor (until Valencia)
Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, countertenor
Zachary Wilder, tenor (Madrid, Valencia, Zurich, Vienna, Amsterdam)
Laurence Kilsby, tenor (Bordeaux, Versailles, Paris)
Alex Rosen, Pilate (bass) (Bordeaux, Madrid, Valence)
Christian Immler, Pilate (bass) (from Zurich)
Julian Prégardien, Evangelist (tenor)
Stéphane Degout, Jesus (baritone)

Raphaël Pichon, conductor
Ensemble Pygmalion