St. Matthew Passion Bach, J. S. / Mendelssohn, F. -
ComposerJohann Sebastian Bach “God forbid, children! I feel as
if I attended an operatic performance!” according to a
contemporary record, that was how a burgher’s elderly wife in
Leipzig commented on St. Matthew’s Passion, which was probably
first performed on Good Friday 1727. Today’s audiences do not
share the rejection of the lady with conservative taste of a
long-gone age, but the drama in Johann Sebastian Bach’s
monumental second Passion, the story of the sufferings of God’s
innocent lamb can be felt and understood in its entirety by
listeners of all eras. After the performances in baroque
centuries, the Passion, composed for two choirs and two
orchestras, was revived at the 1829 production conducted by
Felix Mendelssohn. It rose to the status of the most sacred
masterpieces in the history of music already in the 19th
century. Bach research and the old music movement have brought
us even closer to St. Matthew’s Passion in the past decades, and
our admi