Bach: St. John Passion, BWV 245 (245.2)

Description

The St. John Passion ranks alongside the St. Matthew Passion, the Christmas Oratorio, the Magnificat and the in B Minor Mass as one of the great vocal works from Johann Sebastian Bach's Leipzig years. in contrast to his other large-scale choral works, however, Bach never gave this work a definitive final form. Rather, for every performance he substantially revised the general concept of the piece and also changed numerous details. All previous editions of the St. John Passion have combined readings from various layers of sources and thus present the work in a form which was never heard during Bach's lifetime. Consequently, the wish often expressed by conductors to perform an authentic version by Bach could not be easily achieved. The present critical edition of the St. John Passion fulfills this wish and for the first time makes available the complete music of the second version of the work as it was performed under Bach's direction in 1725. Since a number of movements were replaced by others, including the opening chorus, this version differs most dramatically from the "standard" version which is well known today. The recording for carus music, the choir choach and the Carus Choir Coach is based on the piano reduction of the traditional version (Carus 31.245/93). This differs from version II (score Carus 31.245/50, piano reduction Carus 31.245/53) and is not compatible for practicing.