WGBH Radio WGBH Radio theclassicalstation.org

Bach: St. John Passion / Cleobury, Brandenburg Consort [2 CDs+DVD]


Release Date: 03/27/2012 
Label:  Brilliant Classics   Catalog #: 94316  
Composer:  Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:  John Mark Ainsley,  Stephen Richardson,  Catherine Bott,  Michael Chance,   ... 
Conductor:  Stephen Cleobury
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Brandenburg Consort,  Cambridge King's College Choir
Number of Discs: 2 
Recorded in: Stereo 
In Stock: Usually ships in 24 hours.  
CD: $17.99
In Stock
BUY 
CD:  $17.99 Add to Cart

WISH LIST




Be the first to review this title

Notes and Editorial Reviews

• Special package: the full length CD recording plus the DVD of the same recording, filmed in the famous King’s College Chapel in Cambridge.
• Bach’s Johannes-Passion is on a smaller scale than its big brother Matthäus Passion, yet in its intimate and deeply emotional language it may make an even more profound impression.
• Excellent performance by world famous soloists (John Mark Ainsley, Catherine Bott, Michael Chance) and the King’s College Choir Cambridge, conducted by Stephen Cleobury.

Bach produced his St John Passion in 1724, and it was his first setting of the Passion story. The premiere of the first version took place on Good Friday in Leipzig at the Nicolaikirche. Johann Kuhnau had introdu- ced the Read more tradition of Passion oratorios to Leipzig a few years earlier. Bach’s work underwent several revisions right up to the late 1740s, and was performed regularly in all versions.

Bach’s Passions have an interesting history. He is credited with five, but only two survive intact, the St John and the St Matthew. The St Mark manuscript was destroyed during a bombing raid in the Second World War, although some music and the text survived, and it has been reconstructed and subsequently recorded.

Passion settings appear to have occupied Bach from early on in his career. Some of the material used in the St John Passion dates back to 1714, and it is now believed that Bach reused material from an earlier and now lost Passion. In fact, Bach’s endless revisions saw material from the St Matthew Passion being included in the St John, several Sinfonias were added, and then removed, and these in turn provide material for the many incomplete concertos in Bach’s catalogue of works. Passions are musical descriptions of the events in the life of Christ, from the entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the Crucifixion.

OTHER INFORMATION:
• Recording made in 2003.
• The 1725 version is used in this recording.
• ‘There are fine contributions especially from Stephen Varcoe, and an exceptionally immediate and affecting ‘Es ist vollbracht’ from Michael Chance.’ Gramophone.
• Booklet note and sung texts. Read less

Works on This Recording

1. Saint John Passion, BWV 245 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:  John Mark Ainsley (Tenor), Stephen Richardson (Bass), Catherine Bott (Soprano),
Michael Chance (Alto), Paul Agnew (Tenor), Stephen Varcoe (Bass)
Conductor:  Stephen Cleobury
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Brandenburg Consort,  Cambridge King's College Choir
Period: Baroque 
Written: 1724; Leipzig, Germany 

Customer Reviews

Be the first to review this title
Review This Title
Review This Title Share on Facebook