Joseph Haydn’s oratorio Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze is probably one of the most frequently performed settings of music for Good Friday. Haydn set these Seven Words in a dramatic, extremely gripping emotional style which is utterly compelling.

Originally the work was conceived as a purely instrumental composition – as meditative music in seven slow movements with an introduction and concluding movement (“Il Terremoto” – the earthquake) for a Passiontide church service....