The St. John Passion is one of Bach's two great surviving Passions, or sacred oratorios, the other being the St. Matthew Passion. Bach composed his St. John Passion at the beginning of his long tenure in Leipzig, to be performed at the Good Friday services of 1724.
Since this masterwork is less popular (and less frequently performed) than the St. Matthew Passion, choral director and WQXR host Kent Tritle gives us some basics about the St. John Passion with a set of five Passion Pointers. Listen to these and then tune in to WQXR's live broadcast of the work by Les Violons du Roy from Carnegie Hall on Sunday, March 25.
Pointer One: The many types of music to listen for
Pointer Two: Knowing the difference between the St. John and St. Matthew Passions
Pointer Three: The significance of the work's many chorales
Pointer Four: The way Bach uses male and female voices
Pointer Five: The history of the work's creation
Aaron Cohen has a varied career centered on music, audio and media. In addition to serving as New York Public Radio’s Director of Programming Operations, he is also an award-winning radio producer and an accomplished musician.
Comments [3]
@Kay,
The texts and translations are here:
http://www.carnegiehall.org/WQXR_Les_Violons_du_Roy_Libretto/
where can find the English text.g
A different program appears in place of St Mathew's Passion from 2009.
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