Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor Berlin

Johann Sebastian Bach
Johannes-Passion BWV 245

Really old and extremely lively: For many seasons now, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin has been demonstrating how thrilling music from the 17th to the early 19th century can sound in its own series at the Konzerthaus Berlin.On Good Friday 1724, Bach's St. John Passion, the first Passion music by the new Thomaskantor, was performed in Leipzig's St. Nicholas Church. The congregation, accustomed to Johann Walter's simple work from 1530, was probably quite surprised and excited: this music was so magnificent and so much richer in instrumentation! As a narrative of trust and betrayal, love and despair, fear, pain, and the hope for mercy and redemption, it lent the story of Jesus' suffering an almost operatic quality, depicting the abysses of earthly existence that humans can overcome through trust in God. Although the St. John Passion is now somewhat overshadowed by Bach's much more famous St. Matthew Passion, this does not detract from its stirring beauty and moving musical language.