Passione secondo Matteo by Bach, J. S., Da (2016/2016), Direttore d'orchestra John Eliot Gardiner, NFM (Narodowe Forum Muzyki), Breslavia, Polonia

At the end of the 18th century, religious contemplation was also found in… music. The group of composers whose work could be considered "sacred" included, among others, Pergolesi, Handel and Bach. This belief also persisted in Romanticism. It is therefore not without reason that Johann Nikolaus Forkel, in his preface to the monograph describing the life and work of the cantor from Leipzig, mentioned: 'I am of the opinion that when one gets to know Bach's works in depth, one can only talk about them with admiration, and about some of them even with admiration for the handsome sacred things." Among Bach's numerous religious works, two compositions come to the fore - St. John and the Passion according to St. Matthew. The latter, composed at the time when Bach stopped systematically writing church cantatas for the parish in Leipzig, found its special place in history. At a similar time, he composed the lesser-known work Trauermusik. – a funeral mass for Prince Leopold, at whose court Bach once served. Interestingly, as many as 9 out of 11 numbers that make up Tauermusik are the music we hear in St. Matthew – Bach probably used fragments of the Passion when composing funeral music. The famous Bach Matthew Passion was first presented to the Leipzig faithful almost 300 years ago, on Good Friday. It was performed several more times during Bach's lifetime, only to be heard again in the 19th century. Now it's time for this extraordinary composition to sum up the 51st International Wratislavia Cantans Festival. Twenty concerts are behind us, and a unique performance is ahead of us under the direction of the irreplaceable Sir John Eliot Gardiner.