The St. Petersburg Festival Chorus and Orchestra will perform Bob Chilcott’s “St. John Passion.” The hour-long “Passion” follows the format established by Bach. The story is narrated in recitative by a tenor evangelist, interspersed with interjections from the chorus (as the crowd) and from Pilate and Jesus. All this is interwoven with chorales and meditations sung by the choir. It includes five hymns for congregational singing.

The piece is a dramatic yet optimistic retelling of the Passion story: Jesus’s arrest and trial, Peter’s denial, Jesus’s crucifixion and death. It combines 13th- and 17th century English poems “that express deeply human responses to death, to life, and to man’s relationship with the world and with God,” the composer says, as well as texts from the King James Version.

Bob Chilcott, 64, is a British choral composer, conductor, and singer.

A freewill offering of $10 is suggested.