Luogo e data di registrazione		Palais Schwarzenberg, Vienna (Austria) - 6/23 Aprile und 3/5 Luglio 1965
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		Wolf Erichson
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" | SKH 19/1-3 | 3 LPs - durata 38' 18" - 54' 44" - 23' 15" (side 5) | (p) 1966 | ANA Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" | 6.35018 FK (SKH 19/1-3) | 3 LPs - durata 38' 18" - 54' 44" - 23' 15" (side 5) | (c) 1971 | ANA
	Edizione CD		Teldec Classics "Das Alte Werk" | LC 3706 | 8.35018 ZA | 2 CDs - durata 65' 23" - 51' 30" | (c) 1987 | ADD
	Cover		Fresco: crucifixion altar of the Parish Church in Sümeg (West Hungary), painted entirely by Franz Anton Maulpertsch in 1758. (6.35018 FK)
	Note		-

Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion by Nikolaus Harnoncourt Historical Ever since very early times, round about the 4th century, it had been a general practice in the Christian Church on Palm Sunday and in Holy Week to read the story of the Passion of Christ with distributed roles within the framework of the liturgy, or rather to sing it to the Gospel tone, as psalmody. Usually four clergymen took part; one sang the narrative part, the second the words of Christ, the third the sayings of various persons (Pilate, Peter, High Priest, Maids, etc.) and the fourth the exclamations of the people. From the 9th century onward something in the manner of instructions for performance already appears: for the Evangelist’s part c = celeriter, i.e. moving, for the words of Christ t = tenere, held back, for the other characters s = sursum, upwards (meaning that these passages were to be sung higher). Further markings for differentiation were added as time went on. The passion was still sung in a similar manner in the Lutheran Church after the Reformation. Very soon afterwards German Passion compositions were introduced, in which sections in one part and in several parts alternated with one another, these being sung by the pastor and the choir. The forms became more and more varied, and free paraphrases of the Passion story were also set to music in several parts. Occasionally the texts of the four Gospels were combined. There are German Passion settings by nearly all the important composers of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. More and more chorales were inserted into the Passion narrative, these frequently being sung by the congregation. In the second half of the seventeenth century, composers also began employing the new musical forms of the baroque age, which had come from Italy, in Passion compositions. Lyrical poems and meditative chorales were now frequently inserted between the Bible texts. Occasionally parts of the Bible text were poeticized, and finally, from about 1700, the entire Passion story was freely paraphrased (Menantes: “Der blutende und sterbende Jesus”, B. H. Brockes: “Der für die Sünde der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus”), the emotional language and dramatic form offering the widest range of possibilities for musical interpretation. In addition, there naturally continued to exist the purely Biblical Passion composition, the only type that could be used for liturgical purposes. A leading role was played in this development by the city of Hamburg, where Telemann, Mattheson, Keiser and Handel (before his emigration to England) were active, imparting the most powerful impulses to the musical life of their time in every conceivable field. In Leipzig, things were entirely different. Here the Cantor of St. Thomas’ Church was, at the same time, Municipal Director of Music. In agreement with the Town Council, he had to supervise the music at four churches, and furthermore provide the official ceremonies of the town with sumptuous music. The structure of musical life here had been conservative hitherto - so that a Passion of the modern type with figurative music was only performed for the first time in 1721, under Bach’s predecessor Kuhnau. Up till then, only the traditional Passion performances in psalmody had been known. The Text The St. John Passio nis the first large-scale work that Bach wrote for his new centre of activity in Leipzig. Whether he had already composed it at Köthen and performed it on the Good Friday of 1723, before officially taking up his duties in Leipzig, or not until one year later, has not been completely clarified. What is certain, however, is that this work, both from the intellectual and from the formal point of view, is a product of his Köthen period: for the first time Bach has made use here, in a work for the church, of all the finer points of concerted style and of instrumentation that he had developed and tried out in his many concertos, suites and sonatas. Since the work was intended for the Good Friday liturgy (vesper service), the biblical Passion text - the 18th and 19th chapters of the Gospel according to St. John - which had to be presented in its entirety- formed its textual backbone. Bach supplemented it with two passages from the Gospel according to St. Matthew: 26,75 “And Peter remembered the word of Jesus...” and 27,51 “And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain ...” By introducing meditative texts and chorale verses, Bach enabled himself to redistribute the emphasis of the musical form, these largely being laid down in advance by the distribution of roles in the biblical text. Since he was not collaborating with any suitable poet at the time, he took these texts from various Passion poems, which he rewrote himself until they corresponded to his conception. The most important thing of all for him was the meditative character of these pieces, which is why he modified over-personal turns of phrase into a more general tone, and endeavoured to tone down particularly lurid metaphorical expressions. His main sources were the poem by the Hamburg councillor Barthold Heinrich Brockes “Der für die Sünde der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus, aus den vier Evangelien in gebundener Rede vorgestellt” (Jesus, Martyred and Dying for the Sins of the World, presented from the Four Gospels in verse) and a St. John Passion by Postel. Brockes’ work was widely known through settings by Keiser, Telemann, Handel and Mattheson; Postel’s St. John Passion had been set by Handel in 1704 and it is known that Bach was occupied with this work while at Köthen. The aria texts “Von den Stricken meiner Sünden” (11), “Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen” (48), “Mein teurer Heiland” (60), “Mein Herz, in dem die ganze Welt” (62), “Zerfließe, mein Herze, in Fluten der Zähren” (63) and the final chorus “Ruht wohl, ihr heiligen Gebeine” (67) have come into beings as adaptations of texts by Brockes. Bach’s method of adapting can be clearly shown by comparing the two versions of an aria text: Brockes: Are the deep wounds of my soul By Thy wounds now bandaged? Can I through Thy torture and death Henceforth gain Paradise? Is the redemption of all the world at hand? These are the questions of Zions’ daughter Since Jesus now can say nothing for pain, He thus bows his head and silently nods, yes Bach:  My dear Saviour let Thyself asked, Since though art nailed to the cross And hast said: It is finished! Am I made free from dying? Can Ithrough Thy torment and death Inherit the Kingdom of Heaven? Is the redemption of allthe World at hand? Thou canst indeed say nothing for pain Yet bowest Thou Thy head and speakest silently Yes. The text of the chorale “Durch dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn” is taken from Postel’s Passion, where it is an aria text. Bach only alters one word, in the second line, but thus also alters the meaning of this text: instead “must”, he was written “freedom has come for us”. The Structure Of The Work The musical structure of the St. John Passion follows a formal conception of genius, as Friedrich Smend was the first to show convincingly. The chorale “Durch dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn, ist uns die Freiheit kommen” is the central point in the “core” of the entire work. Around this chorale, which is intended to explain the meaning of the entire passion story like a monumental sermon, are arranged symmetrically, like the wings of a baroque palace, choruses with the same, or very similar, musical character. Each of the two lyrical sections “Betrachte” (31) and “Erwäge” (32) and “Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen” (48) ist flanked by two choruses to form a sequence of movements, these sequences corresponding to one another exactly. The beginning and the end of this core are chorales: The sections before and after this central part are, of course, not so absolutely consistent in their symmetry, although clear correspondences can be recognized that underline the character of a magnificent framework: opening chorus and final chorus (the last chorale does not belong to the work in this sense; it is meant to represent the thoughts of the Christian after hearing the Passion story, as it were); the pair of choruses “Wäre dieser nicht ein Übeltäter” - “Wir dürfen niemand töten” stands at the end of the first section forming the outer framework, and is matched by the chorus “Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen” at the beginning of the later outer framework section. The concentration of the arias in the opening and closing sections thus finds its logical explanation. This mighty structure, so wonderful in its architectonic disposition, lets Bach’s first Passion work tower above the corresponding works of his predecessors and contemporaries, who never went beyond a mere arrangement in sequence of individual numbers. The biblical Passion text indeed proves most ungratifying as material for sensible shaping into music; the choruses of the people, which are most particularly important for an audible division of the work into sections, by no means occur where they would be desired from the point of view of musical form. Despite these extremely difficult conditions, Bach has created a work that displays not only the profoundest musical expression in its detail, but also a convincing, monumental overall structure. Bach’s Performances Bach performed his St. John Passion about four times in the course of his activities at Leipzig. For each performance he made certain alterations. These were often improvements, but sometimes mere adaptations to new circumstances. These alterations have come down to us in various orchestral parts that have been preserved from Bach’s performances, and they give us a fairly clear conception of how he adapted his wishes to the practical possibilities. He laid down his final version of the work in a full score that was written in the last years of his life. He wrote the first twenty pages himself, the rest being written by one of his pupils. In this part, many improvements in his own hand can be found. Since the orchestra at Bach’s disposal consisted partly of students, and was thus continually changing in its composition, he repeatedly had to adapt the instrumentation to the new circumstances: instead of the oboes da caccia he once used oboes d’amore, instead of the violas d’amore muted violins, instead of the lute once a harpsichord, another time the organ; these were emergency solutions in each case in order that the work could be performed at all, and they were again cancelled when no longer necessary. But in addition Bach introduced some genuine improvements: he let a bassoon play with the ’cellos in all the choruses and some of the arias; in the tenor aria “Ach mein Sinn” (19) which was first accompanied only by strings (still mostly today, strangely enough) he wrote “Tutti strumenti”, that is, all the instruments were to join in, though according to a bassoon part that has been preserved, only in the introduction, the interludes and the postlude. The very precise indications of forte and piano in this aria can only be meant, as was frequently the case at that time, as tutti (with wind instruments) and soli (strings only). In the choruses “Sei gegrüßet, lieber Judenkönig” (34) and “Schreibe nicht: Der Juden König” (50) he let the flutes and oboes, who represent the shouting of the people and who were not loud enough in this difficult key for the instruments of the time, be reinforced by some, “not all”, of the violins. During the last hundred years a lot of thought has been devoted to the question to what degree the organ or the harpsichord was used and should be used, for playing the continuo part. Even though discussion of this question is hardly ever likely to be silenced, it is nevertheless assumed fairly definitely today that Bach gave preference to the organ on principle in his church works, even for the recitatives (the harpsichord as a “secular” instrument, was mainly used in the opera and in chamber music), but that in emergencies, if an organ was out of action (as in a repetition of the St. Matthew Passion), or if he had no lute (as in the second or third performance of the St. John Passion), he let the harpsichord, which was available in any case in the Leipzig churches, be played. There have also been heated discussions on the question whether the chorales were sung by the congregation or performed by the choir and orchestra alone. A final decision was all the more difficult to arrive at here in that we know that in certain places, for instance in Hamburg, the congregation at that time joined in the chorales which, however, were set in markedly simple arrangements. The description that the Saxon pastor Chr. Gerber published in his “History of Church Ceremonies in Saxony” in 1732 has frequently bee regarded - almost certainly erroneously - as referring to a Bach Passion. Gerber wrote here “By now they have even begun to perform the Passion Story, which was otherwise so finely sung ‘de semplice et plano’, simply and devotionally, with all sorts of instruments in the most artificial manner, and occasionally to mix a little setting of a Passion-hymn in between, in which the entire congregation joined, after which the instruments again go with all the rest. When this Passion-music was performed for the first time in a distinguished city (probably Dresden) with twelve violins, many oboes, bassoons and other instruments as well, many people were astonished at it and did not know what to make of it. In the room for the nobility of a church, many high Ministers and Noble Ladies were assembled, who sang the first Passion-hymn from their books with great devotion: When now this theatrical music began, all these persons were filled with the greatest astonishment... “Bach’s music was by no means felt to be theatrical or operatic in his own day, but indeed very demanding on the listener; he himself would never have allowed “theatrical” music in church. What is more, he was expressly bound by contract “to arrange the music in such manner that it might not issue forth in operatic fashion, but far rather stimulate the listener to devotion. The “Noble Ladies” in Dresden will thus have been shocked by an entirely different music. It is inconceivable that Bach’s chorales were sung by the congregation. The printed text books of Passions did not include them at all. Neither would the congregation have been able to join in them, since the chorales vary far too much in their compass, some of them lying far too high to be sung by the general public. In addition, Bach’s fine embellishments, which are different in each chorales, could not have been sung generally. It is inconceivable for a musically educated person that the incredibly fine and often extremely complex harmonic and rhythmic structure of Bach’s chorales should have been condemned to be drowned and spoiled by the singing of the congregation. We should also consider what false and inadmissable harmonies would arise in these wonderful settings as the result of singing in octaves! (In congregational singing the men sing the melody an octave lower, sometimes even going lower than the bass!) These chorales were never congregational song, although they indeed symbolized the congregation in the Passion composition as a whole. The accompaniment of the recitatives was subject in Bach’s time to rules that were familiar to every musician, but are now largely unknown. For instance, the organ and the ’cello never held out the bass notes in the ‘secco’ recitatives. The notation in long note values was only an orthographic custom; the harmonic progressions between the vocal part and the bass (which indeed, after the chord had been played, only continued to sound in the listener’s imagination) are visible in the written notes. By virtue of this generally observed practice of only briefly playing each new chord, the words could always be easily understood. Even in 1774 Jean Baumgartner writes in his Violoncello Method: “... there are two kinds of recitative, the accompanied (accompagnato) and the ordinary (secco)... it is against the rules to hold out the note in this latter kind of accompaniment. One must rest until the bass note changes” (according to Schering). This manner of performance distinguished the recitatives very clearly in their sound from the arias. It was a natural speech-song, and very easy to understand, which was the most important thing to the composer. Heinrich Schiitz had already explained: “The Evangelist does not stay longer on a syllable than one is otherwise want to do in usual slow and intelligible speeches.” The organ was not allowed to illustrate the contents of the text by changes of stops. For the accompaniment of the recitatives and the arias set as chamber music, only an eight foot Gedackt was used. It goes without saying that no double bass played in these pieces; it was intended only for movements requiring a larger complement (choruses and fully orchestrated arias). The Numbers Of The Performers For the performance of his work in Leipzig, Bach had rather a motley ensemble. For the Passion performances there was a choir of at most 24 singers at his disposal, boys and youths, which also included the soloists. Like all boys’ choirs, this also was continually changing in its membership; an alto or a soprano can only sing for three or four years at most, since he will need a thorough training beforehand. Hans Joachim Moser is of the opinion that, since Bach always composed for particular occasions and particular musicians whose ability and musicianship he knew exactly, his works altogether represent musical portraits of the first performers. It can be assumed that that group of pupils at St. Thomas’ whom Bach drew upon for the larger and more difficult tasks had been formed by him into a first-class instrument that could realize his intentions to a high degree. Since the choirs of that time sang nothing but contemporary music, they had no stylistic problems to contend with. The continual singing of complex double-chorus motets, which constituted a large part of the St. Thomas choristers’ work, was excellent practice in polyphonic choral singing. The coloratura passages felt to be so difficult today were managed with facility by every choirboy at that time. The instrumental ensemble consisted of town musicians (the official musicians of the Leipzig Council), senior pupils at St. Thomas’ and university students. Since Bach directed the students’ Collegium Musicum, which had been founded by Telemann, for many years, he could draw upon the best musicians of this group as reinforcements. But there were also times in which he did not have enough good musicians at his disposal, mainly on account of shortage of money. Bach complains about such conditions in his “Brief, yet highly necessary Draft for a Well-Ordered Church Music.” Here Bach’s wishes regarding numbers of performers are accurately laid down. The ideal completement he describes, of three first and three second violins. (Bach’s predecessor Kuhnau occasionally had four), two violas, two ’cellos, three oboes, bassoon and, as required, flutes, trumpets and timpani, appears small to us. (Actually it corresponds exactly in its proportions to the constitution’ still demanded by Quantz in 1752: “... to eight violins belong: two violas, two violoncelli, a contraviolon (double bass), two oboes, two flutes ...”). We must, however, remember that the choir was also small compared with present-day oratorio choirs that there was only very limited space in the church galleries and, above all, that the unity of sound between the choruses, arias, and recitatives, which was very important to Bach, would be gravely distorted by a large number of performers. One can read in many descriptions how important to the composers of that period was the adjustment of their works, and of the number of performers, to the rooms in which they were to be performed. Bach’s fine feeling, for the accoustics of rooms has even come down to us in explicit words; for instance his first biographer, Forke, who obtained this information from Philipp Emanuel Bach writes, “His keen glance and mind missed absolutely nothing that had the least connection with his art and could be used for the discovery of new artistic advantages. His attention to the effect of large musical works in places of varying character, his very practised ear, with which he noticed every minutest mistake in music with the fullest part-writing and the largest number of performers...” Instrumentation And Expression This fine sense of sound on Bach’s part is also the source of his subtle and varied instrumentation. Different instruments are used in every aria of the St. John Passion. Ingenious sound combinations such as lute and violas d’amore or flute and oboe da caccia underline the emotional character of the aria concerned. The “affekt”, the ‘speaking’ musical expression, was an essential formative principle in baroque music, and the object of a complex theory. Magister Birnbaum wrote in defence of his teacher Bach (Critischer Musicus 1745): “He knows so completely the elements and the merits that the working out of a piece of music has in common with the art of rhetoric, that one does not only listen to him with satisfying pleasure when he turns his thorough discussions to the similarity and correspondence between the two; but one also admires the skillful application of the same in his works. “Bach’s musical interpretation of the texts extends from the rhetorically impressive sermon of entire movements (tenor aria ‘Ach, mein Sinn’) to the isolated painting of single words. But is also embraces the entire symbol language of that time: musical-pictorial symbols, when a pictorial image is to be conjured up by a musical phrase-ascending or descending, water waves, scourge strokes; symbols that emerge from the note-picture such as the rainbow depicted in notes... (in No. 32) or the numerical symbols with the widest varieties of significance. Contemporary Judgements A vivid description of a rehearsal for a large work has been left for us by Johann Matthias Gesner, Rector of St. Thomas’ School, Leipzig from 1730-1734: “All this... you would consider insignificant if you could see Bach (I name him in particular since he was my colleague in Leipzig not so long ago), how he plays the harpsichord with both hands and all fingers, or the instrument of instruments, whose countless pipes are brought to life by bellows... how he would pay attention to everything at the same time, and of thirty or even forty musicians keep the one in order with a nod, the other by tapping the time with his foot, the third with an admonishing finger... and that he quite alone, in the loudest resounding of the performers, although he has the most difficult task of all, yet notices at once when and where something is not right... how the rhythm takes possession of all his limbs...I believe that my friend Bach incorporates many men like Orpheus within himself.” Bach’s son Philipp Emanuel and his pupil Agricola wrote: “In conducting he was very accurate, and throughly secure in the tempo, which he generally took at a very lively pace.” Adlung wrote in 1758: “Those seem to be right who have heard many artists, but all confess that there has only been one Bach in the world.” The Performance On This Record In the performance of the St. John Passion recorded on this disc, we have attempted to realize Bach’s wishes and conceptions in the most authentic manner possible. In doing so, we have started with the conviction, confirmed by many investigations, that every age possessed the optimum possibilities for the performance of its music. The objection is often raised that instruments and their techniques have been so much improved and further developed in recent times that it would be a retrograde step to return to the old instruments today, also that the small numbers of performers at that time were only an emergency solution; they would have preferred performing with the usual large groups of today at that time too, if only they had been able. Regarding the technical development of the instruments: each “improvement” to an instrument has to be paid for with new disadvantages. For instance, the introduction of keys for the semitones on the flute was resisted for many decades. The improvement (easier ‘speaking’ and uniformity in sound of all semitones) would not compensate, for the taste of that time, for the disadvantages it involved (the variety of tone-colours of the semitones produced with forked fingerings was lost, and with it particular characteristics of key). The instrument was first altered when musical style had changed so that this variety of tone-colours was no more desired. We should consider the “improvements” to which all instruments have been subject in the course of time as changes, as adaptations to the taste of the age. It thus becomes clear what is meant when we say that every age possessed the best instrumental resources for the performance of its music. The same applies to the numbers of performers: there is old music written for large and for small groups. The composers of those days regarded it as their self-understood task to adapt their works as well as possible to the possibilities of performance at their disposal, both in view of the members available and the acoustical circumstances. They never composed for any ideal performances in future times. Bach certainly did not have our gigantic performances of his Passions in mind. The monumental character of these works does not lie by any means in the size of the sound-producing masses, but in the substance of the music itself. Any change in the original relationships can cause a distortion of the balance. It is thus absolutely necessary, within the framework of a performance with a boys’ choir and with instruments of Bach’s time, that the soprano and alto solos are also sung by boys. The question is always raised in this connection whether children can provide the necessary musical qualities for the interpretation of such demanding works. A thirteen-year-old boy cannot, to be sure, compete with the musical knowledge of an experienced woman singer; he will approach his task with a much more natural, naive attitude. Given the appropriate talent and guidance, boys are fully capable of “understanding” this music and performing ft with the utmost dedication. Too much so-called expression, .as can so easily arise with operatically trained women singers, spoiling the balanced concerted performance with the solo instruments, need never be feared. The special timbre of boys’ voices just cannot be replaced. We have today reached the stage where we accept the music just as it was written; fidelity to the work is a recognized demand (fifty years ago people still believed old music could only be presented in re-arranged versions). The sound-producing components cannot be excluded indefinitely from these endeavours. This usually happens in the belief that one cannot expect the listener to accustom himself to a new (the old) sound-picture, to another dynamic scale. The fact is that the public has already become accustomed to the music itself, which is just as remote for us in time, although formerly nobody wanted to believe this would happen. One day we shall have to recognize the fact that the wish to hear old music in an unedited form, as close to the original as possible, sets off a chain reaction (tempi-numbers of performers-acoustics of halls-sound and sound-blending of the instruments), which cannot be halted, and at the end of which stands a performance corresponding to the circumstances of the time of composition in every respect. The highly characteristic, sharp and clearly defined sounds of the old instruments, the voices of the choir of boys and youths all become blended and bound together in the resonant acoustics of baroque halls and churches. It is a clarity without hardness, without over-sharpness of detail, in other words not merely a full score in sound. This uncompromising striving for the original is, of course, only justified when the most important thing of all is also present: glowing vitality and full commitment in the music-making, for music has never been performed objectively and impersonally-least of all in the case of Bach.