Matthäus-Passion
Johann Sebastian Bach
The Matthäus-Passion, the pinnacle of Bach’s choral art, performed by a top-flight vocal team.
Maximilian Schmitt | tenor (L’Evangéliste)
Yannick Debus | baritone (Le Christ)
Kateryna Kasper | soprano
Philippe Jaroussky | countertenor
Emiliano Gonzalez Toro | tenor
Andreas Wolf | bass-baritone
Francesco Corti | harpsichord and direction
Freiburger Barockorchester
Zürcher Sing-Akademie
In early eighteenth-century Germany, a widespread custom developed of performing a major choral work on Good Friday based on the Passion of Christ. During the few years separating the St John Passion (1723-24) from the St Matthew Passion (1727), Bach continued to develop his musical experience and added a number of innovations to his second great Passion. He created a fuller sound by introducing a third chorus and enhanced the variety of the recitative. This masterpiece by Bach brings the very long list of Passions in the history of music to a close. With a few exceptions, those which followed were no longer Passions in the liturgical sense as Bach understood it, but would blaze the trail for the oratorio form.
Production Théâtre des Champs-Elysées