Bach: Matthäus [St Matthew] Passion / Johannes [St John] Passion

The fact that the Bach family was unanimous in considering the St Matthew Passion the greatest of its genre leaves little doubt that Johann Sebastian was well aware of the work's singular qualities. And when Anna Magdalena supplied a figured bass with the heading 'for the great Passion', there were no questions in the house of the Thomaskantor as to which work she had in mind.

Bach revised the Passion on numerous occasions, adapting it to the performance setting. All the alterations had one thing in common: namely that they were intended to amplify the impact of the monumental design. That Bach went to the length of employing two choirs for the vocals and a full orchestra doubled must have seemed extortionate indeed to his contemporaries. It is all the more astonishing that we know so little of the work's origins and the conditions under which it was performed; there is no indication of scoring for the St Matthew Passion, or of its
reception by Leipzig's churchgoers. Not even the year of the premiere can be established with complete confidence. While 1729 used to be the consensus among Bach scholars, the belief has now gained ground that the work must have been performed in the Thomaskirche two years earlier.