St Matthew Passion

Bach’s St. Matthew Passion occupies a very special position in the Dutch musical landscape. The Netherlands maintains a unique tradition in the performance of this work. Hardly surprising, given the gripping and masterful fashion in which the passion story is told. Using chorales, recitatives and arias, Bach creates an inescapable sense of drama for musicians and listeners alike. Over the last fifty years, the passion tradition has benefited from many new insights in the field of performance practice. In the early 1980s, Trevor Pinnock created a sensation with
his refreshing Bach interpretations in which a clarity of style seems to go naturally hand-in-hand with animated lyricism. At that time, Pinnock performed mostly with early-music specialists; nowadays he is famous mainly as a conductor of major symphony orchestras. What has not changed, according to the NRC Handelsblad daily paper, is his noteworthy synthesis of
the monumental and the agile.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
Matthäus Passion  BWV 244

Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest
Cappella Amsterdam

Werner Güra Evangelist
Christian Immler bass (Christ)
Carolyn Sampson soprano
Robin Tritschler tenor
Markus Werba bass

Daniel Reuss conductor