Passion according to St. Jana is an earlier work than the famous Matthew Passion (1729) , polished for many years by the Lipski Kantor himself. Composed and performed on Good Friday 1724 in the Leipzig church of St. Nicholas, the next version with numerous changes was in another Leipzig church of St. Thomas. The version most often performed today is a mix of the late 1730 unfinished new version and the 1749 fourth version, with no subsequent textual changes to the arias. However, this did not end work on the Passion. Another version, performed during the composer's lifetime, is dated 1749. It essentially corresponds again to the structure of 1724, but is significantly extended in the instrumental area and contains a longer section. St. John's Passion (Mt 26:75: Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him: "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." He went outside and wept bitterly. Mt 27:51-52; And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth trembled and the rocks began to crack, the graves opened and many bodies of the saints who had died rose up) were removed by order of the authorities (the score was to contain only original music, composed with John's Gospel in mind), and replaced by: a tenor aria and a sinfonia. The latter have been lost.
It is said that the Passion describing Jesus' journey from his capture to his death on the cross is Bach's own prayer, his deep confession of faith. From the opening chorus Herr, unser Herrscher, dessen Ruhm in allen Landen herrlich ist! ( Lord, our Lord, whose great glory is proclaimed by each of the lands! ), to the final Ach Herr, lass dein lieb Engelein ( Ah Lord, send your beloved angel), Bach builds tension with every phrase and note - this extraordinary mystery that lies at the basis of the dogma, the essence of the Christian faith. at St. John's description is basically limited to the "fictional" presentation of the scenes of the judgment before the chief priests and Pilate. And it was precisely this multitude of pathos, the atmosphere of constant dramatic agitation, that must have disturbed Bach, since for balance he wove the aforementioned few fragments from the Gospel of St. Matthew. Today you can hear how much the description of St. Jana limited Bach, making it impossible to incorporate the arias and chorales necessary for oratorio passion. Bach found this formal freedom in the Gospel of Matthew.
This was noticed by Father Julian Mieczysław Śmierciak from the Institute of Musicology of the Catholic University of Lublin : Bach created spontaneously, by the power of his genius and did not strictly adhere to musical patterns, did not copy and did not calculate according to mathematical proportions, but knowing the principles of musical rhetoric perfectly well, he used them masterfully to the important events of the Passion of Christ, to be expressed as accurately, with as much force and as effectively as possible and using the best means .
The music of Johann Sebastian Bach with every note seems to confirm the validity of the words of Martin Luther, who said: The Passion of Christ cannot be played out with words and pretending, but with real life itself. Hence, Bach's Passion works achieve a balance, unheard of in others, between the seriousness and weight of the description of the Passion of the Lord with the perfection of the phrasing, even the fleetingness of the aria. Nomen omen, Bach, creating his passion, referred to the translation of the Gospel according to Saint John in Martin Luther's version.
Scholars say directly that with this work Bach himself prays to God, and the weight of the notes seems to ask for redemption. Win us all.
The Warsaw Chamber Opera has turned Bach's oratorio music into a kind of showcase, and thanks to building interpretations on the foundation of one of the best ensembles of our time from the group of those specializing in performances on old instruments or their copies - Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense, it provides music lovers with sensations flowing on the wave of interpretation historically informed.
