We are back in the Easter cycle, so for No Day Without Bach, time for Bach’s passions again. A new performance of the St Mark Passion will be broadcast on March 11, 12 and 13, in a reconstruction by the Swiss conductor Nikolaus Matthes.
Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a total of three passions. Only two of these have been preserved, the St. John and St. Matthew Passions. Of the third, the St Mark Passion, only the text by Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander) is known. The music has been lost. A number of musicologists (including Jörn Boysen and Ton Koopman) have already tried to trace the music. Bach often reused music, and by matching texts with existing music, several versions of the St Mark Passion, BWV 247, were created.
Through our contact Jörg Hübert we came into contact with the Swiss Nikolaus Matthes. Matthes has been working for a number of years on a completely new version of the St Mark Passion. Nikolaus has composed new music based on Picander’s existing text, and with a very surprising result. Every reconstruction is of course an assumption, but we think Nikolaus has succeeded quite well in approximating Bach’s DNA.
In three episodes of No Day Without Bach we will broadcast the complete performance of the St Mark Passion. A first for the Concertzender! This version was performed four times in Switzerland last year and has just been released on CD on March 8, 2024. It is performed by Maya Boog, soprano, Annekathrin Laabs, alto, Daniel Johannsen and Georg Poplutz, tenor and evangelist, Matthias Helm, bass, Daniel Pérez, bass (Jesus) and choir and orchestra Gli Aspetti conducted by Nikolaus Matthes.
More information can be found here.
Broadcasts : No day without Bach: Monday, March 11, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
