Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (1727) 

Residentie Orkest The Hague

Residentie Orkest The Hague offers a top-quality musical experience with an adventurous profile and dynamic momentum. The music of the Residentie Orkest inspires, initiates dialogue, creates wonder, tells history and connects with current events. The Residentie Orkest is always looking for the relevance of music in a contemporary, young and fresh way. With its reputation as one of the best orchestras in Europe, the Residentie Orkest is an important musical figurehead of The Hague as a cosmopolitan city of law, peace and culture. 

Anja Bihlmaier is the current chief conductor of the Residentie Orkest, Richard Egarr and Jun Märkl are both regular guest conductors. 

Peter Dijkstra, conductor 

Peter Dijkstra is one of the leading choral conductors of our time. He studied choral conducting, orchestral conducting and solo singing at the conservatories of The Hague, Cologne and Stockholm and received his degreessumma cum laudewith distinction.
Was artistic director of the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks from 2005-2016; chief conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir from 2007-2018. Since September 2015 he has been chief conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Choir. From 2018 he is also first guest conductor of the Great Broadcasting Choir. From 2022 he will again hold the position of artistic director of the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks. 

Besides his work with these ensembles, he is a welcome guest with many renowned professional choirs in Europe, such as the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, the WDR, MDR and NDR Rundfunkchöre, the Danish National Radio Choir, SWR Vokalensemble, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the BBC Singers. Dijkstra is also a frequent guest conductor with renowned orchestras such as the Symphonieorchester und Rundfunk-orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Deutsche Symphonieorchester Berlin, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Concerto Köln, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and B'Rock. 

Toby Spence, evangelist

Education New College, Oxford and Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Career The British tenor has soloed with renowned orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Thomas Adés, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Is also in demand as an opera singer and has performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera and Theater an der Wien as well as the festivals in Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence and Edinburgh, among others. Won the Royal Philharmonic Society Singer of the Year Award in 2011.

Thomas Stimmel, Christ 

Education Sang as a child with the Tölzer Knabenchor and later studied in Munich and Berlin.  

Career Performed at such international opera houses as the Berliner Staatsoper and Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile. Worked with conductors such as David Afkham, Andrew Manze and Philippe Herreweghe. Premiered several works by composer and conductor George Alexander Albrecht. Is also an international photographer. 

Ilse Eerens, soprano 

Education The Belgian soprano began her studies at the age of 14 at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven. Graduated cum laude with Jard van Nes at the New Opera Academy. 

Career Sang various opera roles at, among others, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Monnaie Theatre in Brussels. Soloized with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, deFilharmonie with conductors such as Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Hartmut Haenchen, Frans Brüggen and Philippe Herreweghe. Won prizes at the Euriade Vocal Competition (Kerkrade), International Vocal Competition ('s-Hertogenbosch) and the ARD Competition (Munich). 

Olivia Vermeulen, alto

Education Studied in Detmold and Berlin and took master classes with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Andreas Scholl and Thomas Quasthoff, among others. 

Career One of the leading vocal artists in the contemporary classical music world. Sang in several operas and is in great demand as a concert singer with the London Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Berliner Philharmoniker and Gabriele Consort under conductors such as René Jacobs, Pablo Heras-Casado, Daniel Harding, Iván Fischer, Frans Brüggen and Tomáš Netopil. Made her debut in 2016 at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and toured with the Freiburger Barockorchester in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in 2018. In 2019, she made her debut at the Opéra National de Paris.

Linard Vrielink, tenor

Education University of the Arts in Berlin. 

Career Debuted during his studies as an opera singer in the role of Scaramuccio in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at the Staatsoper Berlin. Worked with Raphaël Pichon, Thomas Hengelbrock, Daniel Barenboim, Marc Minkowski, Ed Spanjaard, Sir Simon Rattle and Peter Dijkstra. Participated in the Bregenzer Festspiele and Festival d'Aix-en-Provence where he returns in July in a new production of Mozart's opera Idomeneo. Recently sang at the Residentie Orkest in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Tijl Beckand. 

Andreas Wolf, bass 

Training Hochschule für Musik, Detmold and with Thomas Quasthoff in Berlin. Master classes with András Schiff, Christoph Prégardien and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.  

Career Performed at international opera houses such as Theater an der Wien, La Monnaie in Brussels and Teatro Real de Madrid and was a guest in the Wiener Festwochen, among others. Worked with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Peter Dijkstra, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Ton Koopman and with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmonie, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Residentie Orkest, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and the Freiburger Barockorchester.

Netherlands Chamber Choir

For more than eighty years, Netherlands Chamber Choir has been among the world's top choral music ensembles. It is known for its new vistas when it comes to the development and performance practice of top-level choral music. Using choral music as a medium, the ensemble explores and depicts social themes and collaborates with other artists such as actors, dancers, DJs, VJs and poets, as well as with partners from healthcare, education and business. In this way the choir tells a contemporary story with its music every time. 

Peter Dijkstra has been chief conductor of the choir since 2015. His predecessors were Hans van de Hombergh, Kerry Woodward, Uwe Gronostay, Tõnu Kaljuste, Stephen Layton and Risto Joost. The choir was founded in 1937 by Felix de Nobel, who was its first chief conductor until 1972. 

Haags Matrozenkoor

The Haags Matrozenkoor was founded in 1928 by conductor Theo van Elferen. The choir consists of a preparatory class and a concert class consisting of sopranos, altos, tenors and basses. The concert class sings a wide repertoire from classical to modern, gives its own concerts and collaborates in productions of well-known choirs and orchestras. At Passion time, the sailors sing along in Matthäus Passion performances around the country, and at Christmas time, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is traditionally performed. The choir makes an annual tour abroad. Recently Peter van der Leeuw became the conductor of the Haags Matrozenkoor.

The idea has always been that the St. Matthew Passion had its first performance on Good Friday, April 15, 1729, in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. This dating arose around the rediscovery of the work in 1829. The performance then was conducted by the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and, according to the program booklet, took place exactly one hundred years after the primal performance. Without wishing to detract from the enormous historical importance of this performance, this date is questioned today. It is believed that the original performance took place two years earlier, on Good Friday, April 11, 1727.

In 1736, a new version of the St. Matthew Passion saw the light of day. For still unexplained reasons, Bach had reworked the work. In addition to some musical changes, this resulted in an extraordinarily beautifully calligraphed score with a generous page layout and special use of color for the biblical texts.

There is no record of the reception of the primal performance or of other performances of Bach's Passions in Leipzig. It is possible that things went the same way for the St. Matthew Passion as they did for another, similar, performance, in which comments such as, "Was soll daraus werden?" were heard, and in which a noble widow spoke, "Behüte Gott, ihr Kinder! Ist es doch als ob man in einer Opera-Komödie wäre!"

After Bach's death, the material came into the possession of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, who took parts from it and combined them with his own Passions compositions to form what is known as the Passions Pasticcio. Like Bach's other religious works, however, the work was almost never performed. 

A famous lover of Bach's works was Baron van Swieten. Through him, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven eventually came into contact with Bach's Passion compositions. Although the work did maintain fame in limited circles in this way, it was generally judged too large for performance; it would make too great a demand on performers and audiences. 

When Mendelssohn performed Bach again, he introduced people to what he considered a great work, but one that needed some modification to be digestible at the time. When it was performed in 1829, the piece was altered in such a way that we would hardly have recognized it. It was shortened by about half. In particular, the contemplative sections suffered in this process: sixteen of the twenty-three solo contributions were removed, as were six of the fifteen chorales. The dramatic line was retained but stripped of various side paths such as Pilate's warning woman. The orchestration was also modified; for example, the oboe d'amore and organ were replaced by clarinets and a fortepiano.  

With this extraordinarily successful second premiere, the St. Matthew Passion began a victory march that soon made the work as indispensable in the Passion season as the Christmas tree at Christmas. This performance, incidentally, also set the tone for the number of performers. While on that occasion there were one hundred and fifty choristers, in the coming years this number grew even larger. Only in the twentieth century did the performing apparatus become smaller again. This was partly due to the insight that, while contemporary Handel was always eager for a mass setting, Bach preferred to add a few more parts if he could arrange a few good musicians.

The occupation  

Bach's choice of a double-choir format is unusual. Double-choir means that there are not only two vocal choirs prescribed but also two orchestras. Possibly Bach even considered a double group of soloists. This Last is rather budgetary and not really necessary and therefore is not usually implemented. Both orchestras have a full string section, basso continuo - including organ and bassoon - flutes and oboes. Incidentally, the oboists must also play oboe d'amore - love oboe - and oboe da caccia - hunting oboe, now cor anglais . Probably the recorders - often replaced today by flutes, since their contribution is only minor - were played by the flutists or violinists. There are also two arias in which a viola da gamba is requested. 

It is most likely that Bach came to the idea of the double chorale through Picander's text. In this text, the first part speaks of a dialogue between Zion and the faithful. Matthew's words about two groups mocking Jesus (61d,e) also give rise to this. In any case, with the help of this double chorale, Bach achieves great vividness in the painting of the assembled crowds.  

At the beginning and end of the first movement, Bach prescribes "soprano in ripieno" in addition to the already extensive scoring. The indication "in ripieno" means that this part should be plural. This is therefore an additional group of sopranos. To this day, this part is invariably performed by a boys' choir. This creates a sound distinction from the mixed choirs that is not authentic. In Bach's time, all soprano parts were sung by boys. So while the use of a boys' choir is debatable, the effect is undeniably impressive.  

The shape  

We must realize, that the St. Matthew Passion was written from a tradition with a liturgical purpose. The conception of the text ultimately determined the musical form. At the time, there were roughly two possibilities for rendering the Passion: a "Passion oratorio" or an "oratorical Passion.

In the first form, the Passion was retold in free verse. Works of this kind, often listening to titles such as "Der blutige und sterbende Jesus," were generally kept out of the churches by the faithful world. In an "oratorical Passion," of which the St. Matthew Passion is an example, the original Bible texts were supplemented by free verses, which served as meditations or teachings, and by chorales. Thus, even in the St. Matthew Passion there are three different types of text:

1. The Bible text. This is text from the Gospel according to Matthew, taken verbatim from Martin Luther's translation. The Bible text represents the word of God.  

2. The chorale texts. Most of these date back to the 17th century; four even date back to the time of the Reformation. The chorale texts were part of the liturgy and were sung by the congregation in the regular services. They therefore represent the word or song of the church congregation.  

3. The free verses, which symbolize the word of the believing individual. The verses in the St. Matthew Passion were written by Christian Friedrich Henrici (1700-1764), under the pseudonym Picander. This writer's reputation in literary history is downright poor. He is dismissed as a rhymer of such works as Die Weiberprobe and Der akademische Schlendrian. Yet in this case, probably in consultation with Bach, he has written a text that may then not in all cases be to today's taste, but which nevertheless harbors much quality. That we will find many interesting cross-connections in the text during the following analysis, however, does not alter the fact that the text would not have defied the times without Bach's music. 

Boudewijn Jansen