Bach, Passion according to St. Matthew

Johann Sebastian Bach, the father of harmony, was primarily a church musician, who was aware that church music was primarily vocal music. That is why his oeuvre is punctuated by compositions to be sung, even when he was primarily concerned with the orchestra or solo instruments. From 1723 on, after being appointed Kantor in Leipzig, his dedication to ecclesiastical music became more intense, since his main responsibility was to compose the music to be sung in the divine offices.

The Passions
Cantatas were Bach's daily bread and butter. Not so the Passions, conceived as long works on biblical themes, told the story of Christ's crucifixion according to the gospels and were sung only on Good Friday, in the Lutheran tradition. In the Passions, the historical characters and the evangelist (who leads the narration) are performed by soloists, and the flow of the story rests on recitatives, arias, and choral parts.

Passion according to St. Matthew

As far as we know, Bach would have composed at least five Passions, of which only two are preserved, the Passion according to St. John and the Passion according to St. Matthew. The latter, probably composed in 1729, was first performed on Good Friday of that year in the Thomasschule Church in Leipzig under Bach's baton.

The work, whose text is mainly based on chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew, is written for solo voices, a double orchestra, and two choirs, the latter intended to carry the voice of the believers, on the one hand, and those who ask for blood, on the other, each accompanied by its own orchestral group, hence the "double orchestra".

The oblivion, and Mendelssohn

Like almost all of Bach's works, the St. Matthew Passion fell into oblivion after its author's death in 1750. It was not until 1829 that it was heard again, thanks to a very young Felix Mendelssohn who brought it to the stage in Berlin in an abridged version. Its representation encouraged the interest in knowing the complete work of the father of modern music.

The great final chorus

In our days, Martin Scorsese's film Casino (1995) made an important contribution in favor of the ordinary public by including in the opening credits and in the final scene, the great chorus with which the play ends. It is the cry of the believers before the tomb of the dead Christ: Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder ("We prostrate ourselves weeping"), one of the most moving fragments of the work, and whose texts belong to the German poet and librettist Chrystian Friedrich Henrici, also known as Picander.

The performance is by the orchestra and choirs of the Belgian group Collegium Vocale Gent, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe, its founder.