St. John Passion (version II)

The “St. John Passion” ranks alongside the “St. Matthew Passion”, the “Christmas Oratorio”, the “Magnificat” and the “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 our practice aids “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 and is therefore not compatible for practicing.