Composers have always been wary of writing operas on the life of Christ; and Passion narratives aside, they haven’t exactly rushed to make it the basis for concert works either, since most of the standard oratorios take their texts from the Old Testament rather than the New.
But there are other options, and a singular example is Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, which sounds like a choral work but is in fact a purely instrumental one that responds emotionally to the sacred words rather than setting them. Haydn wrote it for full orchestra but it’s more often heard in a version for string quartet. And that’s how it was done at the Barbican by the Casals Quartet from Spain – who played superbly, with a chiselled clarity and noble eloquence.
