Bach's St John Passions

Abstract

There are few pieces that can illustrate the vital differences between our own musical culture and that of Bach’s time more strikingly than the St John Passion. Whereas Bach’s audiences at Leipzig’s main churches primarily would have sought to contemplate the Passion of Christ, for example, today’s listeners are more likely to engage with the music on account of a passion for Bach. Even the well-known fact that Bach’s music originally formed part of a liturgical sound-world can seem surprising today, as John Butt and the Dunedin Consort have so powerfully illustrated in their widely acclaimed new recording of the John Passion (Linn Records, ckd419, rec 2012, 139′). The set reunites the Passion with a reconstructed Good Friday liturgy, and contrasting the controlled formality of organ preludes and congregational singing with Bach’s concerted movements achieves a remarkable effect: it not only intensifies a sense of drama and tension...