Coming up in Philly music: Last words, Haydn style

The upstairs reception room at St. Clement’s Church is an ideal place to hear music played on replicas of historical instruments. Its modest size and general décor would probably look familiar to a time traveler from the 17th and 18th centuries, and Wednesday, March 15 will host a rare event. A string quartet that specializes in period instruments, the Franklin Quartet, will play Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the gentler, less penetrating instruments of the style actually in use when it was composed in 1787. Baroque period instrument concerts have become a standard item; period instrument groups like the Franklin Quartet are exploring new territory when they play works from the decades when Baroque forms were being replaced by new forms like the string quartet. Each section of Haydn’s dark, deeply moving masterpiece will be preceded by a reading of the appropriate Bible verse in Latin and English.

Choral Arts Philadelphia’s Bach @ 7 Chamber Series will present Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on Wednesday, March 15 at 7pm at St. Clement’s Church, 2013 Appletree Street (near 20th and Arch Streets), Philadelphia. Admission is “pay what you wish,” with a suggested $20 donation.