Johannespassion

In the organizer's words:

3rd Bach Choir Concert / Johann Sebastian Bach: St. John Passion BWV 245

concert
St. Peter's Church

Soprano

Heidi Baumgartner

alto

Anne Bierwirth

tenor

Christian Rathgeber

bass

David Pichlmaier

Bach Choir Heidelberg

Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor

Thomas Gropper

On Good Friday 1724, Johann Sebastian Bach performed his St. John Passion for the first time in Leipzig's Nikolaikirche. He captured the evangelist John's account of the capture, interrogation and crucifixion of Jesus in music full of drama and passion. The type of composition was something new for the ears of the time. The Passion text is based on the Luther translation of the Gospel of John and depicts Christ's imprisonment up to his burial. For the composer Hans Werner Henze (1926-2012), Bach's St. John Passion "expresses things that until then no one had dared, no one had been able or even attempted to say in words".