J.S. Bach, St. John Passion

See press release for this concert.

Two weeks before Good Friday, on March 23, 2007, Chorus pro Musica will perform Johann Sebastian Bach's dramatic and moving setting of Christ's Passion according to St. John. The first of Bach's two surviving Passion settings, the St. John Passion is not heard as often as his later St. Matthew Passion setting. The CpM performance will be only the third Boston performance by a major chorus in the past decade.

The St. John Passion was first performed in Leipzig on Good Friday, 1724. It was one of Bach's first compositions there, and came after a difficult time that included the sudden death of his first wife and his departure from a position as a court musician. The citizens of Leipzig were wary of “operatic” music in church, but Bach nonetheless gave them a vivid drama, alternating arias, recitatives and choruses on biblical texts with chorales and hymns that interpret the story. The work includes ferocious crowd scenes and some of the most difficult — and expressive — arias Bach ever wrote.

Soloists

The March 23 performance features:

Mark Sprinkle, tenor (Evangelist)

Aaron Engebreth, baritone (Jesus)

Mark McSweeney, baritone (Pilate)

Jessica Cooper, soprano

Thea Lobo, mezzo-soprano

Ryan Turner, tenor

Links

Listed below are links to background material and program notes concerning the St. John Passion.

• Text translation from the San Francisco Bach Choir.
• Michael Steinberg's program essay, probably the best overall source of background.
• Audrey Wong and Norm Proctor's essay gets much more into the nature of the composition, and illustrates the symmetry of the choruses. (From program notes for the Baroque Choral Guild, Stanford CA)
• Dutch musicologist (and harpsichordist) Pieter Dirksen on the genesis of the St. John Passion (includes discussion of the instruments used).
• A short description from answers.com, extracted from the All Music Guide. There is also a discography.

  "The St. John Passion calls for four vocal soloists, four-part chorus, and a large orchestra including not only the now-usual string instruments, flutes, oboes, and basso continuo, but also oboes d'amore, oboes da caccia, and violas d'amore; and there is even the possibility of letting a lutenist into the ensemble!"
  (CpM will, of course, have a lute, and the entire orchestra will be authentic period instruments.)

• For musicologists: an essay by Pieter Dirksen about the genesis of the work and Bach's life at the time he wrote (and revised) it.
• Anti-semitism? This has been a hot issue, but seems to have cooled down a bit. Here are a couple links.
  • A panel discussion at BU as reported by the BU Bridge.
  • A scholarly essay by Michael Marissen from The Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies web site.
  • A Texas perspective on the crowd scenes.

The Bach Cantatas Website (BCW) is a comprehensive site covering all aspects of J.S. Bach's cantatas and his other vocal works. The BCW contains discussions and detailed discographies of each cantata and other vocal works, performers and general topics. The BCW also contains texts and translations, scores, music examples, articles and interviews, and over 3,700 short biographies of performers of Bach's vocal works (singers, conductors, vocal and instrumental groups) and players of his keyboard works. There are also other relevant resources such as the Lutheran church year, database of chorale texts & melodies and their authors, reviews and discussions of Bach's non-vocal works and books about Bach, terms and abbreviations, schedule of concerts of Bach's vocal works, guide to Bach tour, thousands of links to other relevant resources. The BCW is an international collective project, being compiled from various postings about the subject, most of which have been sent to the Bach Mailing Lists.