Markus Passion - J.S. Bach (2006) - (Koopman's reconstruction)

Markus Passion - J.S. Bach (2006) - (Koopman's reconstruction)
1 DVD ISO+ booklet| 720x480 | MPEG-2 DVD | LPCM, DD 5.1 | Language: German | Subtitles: EN, FR, GER, NL | 2H05 | 7.14 GB
Artists: Christoph Pregardien, Deborah York, Bernhard Landauer, Paul Agnew, Peter Kooij...
Conductor: Ton Koopman | Direction: Tina Protasoni | Recording Date: 30 March 2000 | Place of recording: Chiesa di San Simpliciano, Milano

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's obituary of his father (Johann Sebastian, of course) stated that the elder composer composed five settings of the Passion. Frustratingly, only the music for the St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion have survived; even more frustratingly, we do have the complete text of Bach's Passion According to St. Mark, which was published in a collection of the librettist's poetry. As it happens, the texts of the St. Mark's opening and closing choruses and four of its arias so closely match the length, meter, and rhyme schemes of their counterparts in Bach's Trauer-Ode, BWV 198 (a funeral cantata for local royalty that Bach composed shortly earlier) that it seems certain that Bach reused the Trauer-Ode's music in the St. Mark. More than one reasonably convincing reconstruction of the St. Mark Passion has been made, based on the Trauer-Ode, with music from other Bach works being borrowed for the chorales, crowd choruses, and remaining arias; the recitatives (which Bach must have composed afresh) are taken generally from a St. Mark Passion setting by Reinhard Keiser.

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Johannes-Passion - J.S. Bach (2007)

Johannes-Passion - J.S. Bach (2007)
1 DVD ISO+ booklet| 720x480 | MPEG-2 DVD | LPCM, DTS 5.1 | Language: German | Subtitles: EN, FR, GER, ES, CN | 114 MIN | 6.90 GB

Artists:Kurt Equiluz, Robert Holl, Concentus Musicus Wien, Thomas Moser, Anton Scharinger....
Conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt | Direction: Humphrey Burton | Recording Date: 1985 | Place of recording: Graz's Gothic Baroque Cathedral

This brilliant recording though made in 1985 is still vibrant and alive today. This is a tribute to the conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He was then and is still today the absolute master of playing works of the Baroque period on period instruments and being musicologically correct for that period and the composer. Many such attempts at "period correct" music playing that I've heard have been stiff, boring and lifeless. Not so with Harnoncourt. His recordings are always exciting and spell binding. This is certainly true of the Johanes Passion.
This is the earlier of the two surviving Passions that Bach wrote. He had just been appointed Kantor of the St. Thomas church in Leipzig and was at the height of his choral creative powers. Whereas the later St. Matthew Passion is deeply devotional, contemplative and reassuring, the St. John is raw, aggressive and hugely dramatic; as close to Opera as Bach would ever obtain. From the opening chorus with it's mesmerizing dissonance in "Herr, Herr, unser Herrscher"(an E against an E flat), the rush of the drama seizes you and it carries you till the end of the work. The power of the music is in scene painting and this occurs throughout the entire piece. As example when Peter has denied Christ for the third time he goes to the garden to weep and when the veil of the temple is rent (both additions from the Matthew gospel) to the brutal suffering of Jesus on the cross with the plaintive aria "Ach, mein Sinn" or the painful aria "Erwage wie sein blutgefarbter Rucken" with the desperate cries of the chorus "Wohin?, Wohin?" This is high drama and as theatrical as it gets.
The musicians involved are all splendid in their rolls. I can't imagine a better Evangelist than Kurt Equiluz and the Jesus of Robert Moll is a pillar of strength. Though he does not have much music to sing here, the tenor solo Thomas Moser does very well and we'll hear him in many later opera performances. For those interested in musicology, the excellent use of period instruments was very informative and a great pleasure to hear. We have an aria accompanied by a pair of Viols with six strings and a C curve on the body of the instrument rather than the F curve of the Violin family with their four strings. In another aria we have a higly curved, eerie sounding Shawm of the older Oboe family accompanying along with wooden flutes and oboes. They all sounded "just right" in the places where they were used. A truly great experience.

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La passion selon Saint-Jean - J-S Bach (2008)

La passion selon Saint-Jean - J-S Bach (2008)
1 DVD ISO | 720x576 | MPEG-2 DVD | DD 2.0 | Language: German+ Bonus (only French) | Subtitles: French | 120 MIN | 7.21 GB
Artists: Lisandro Abadie, Valérie Bonnard, Christophe Einhorn, Jean-Luc Follonier, Nathalie Gaudefroy, Benoît Haller, Ulrich Messthaler, Nathalie Bolo, Mathias Reusser....
Chœurs : Ensemble vocal Euterpe, chœur Laudate. Orchestre : Ensemble baroque du Léman .
Staging : Gérard Demierre | Conductor: Christophe Gesseney | TV direction : Pierre-Alain Frey | Recording Date: 30 Mars 2007 | Place of recording: Cathédrale de Lausanne

Découvrez, pour la première fois en DVD et en version intégrale, un des plus beaux spectacles jamais donnés dans la Cathédrale de Lausanne : la Passion selon Saint-Jean de Jean-Sébastien Bach, mise en scène dans la Cathédrale de Lausanne.
Pour que cette magnifique aventure artistique et humaine puisse voir le jour, ce ne sont pas moins de 140 solistes, choristes, musiciens, figurants, techniciens et artisans culturels qui ont œuvré durant des mois. Cette variante scénique de la Passion selon St-Jean restera certainement un moment d’exception pour cette œuvre majeure de Bach...

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Don't bother me, this the untouched version. Simply, in Switzerland, they don't think that a language other than French exists.

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Matthaus Passion - Bach (2006)

Matthaus Passion - Bach (2006)
2 DVD ISO | 720x480 | MPEG-2 DVD | LPCM, DD 5.1 | Language: German | Subtitles: EN, FR, IT, GER, NL, JP, ES | 163 MIN | 10.1 GB

Artists: Jorg Durmuller, Cornelia Samuelis, Ekkherd Abele, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Opera...
Conductor: Ton Koopman | Direction : Hans Hulscher | Recording Date: March 2005 | Place of recording: St Joriskerk, Amersfoort

La Passion selon saint Matthieu (BWV 244) (en latin Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Evangelistam Matthaeum, connue en allemand sous le nom de Matthäuspassion), est l'une des œuvres vocales les plus abouties de Johann Sebastian Bach.

La Passion, œuvre monumentale dont l'exécution dure environ 2 heures 45, compte parmi les piliers de la musique classique, avec par exemple l'opéra La flûte enchantée de Mozart ou la 9e symphonie avec chœur de Beethoven.

La Passion, écrite pour des voix solistes, un double choeur (choeur divisé en deux groupes indépendants) et donc deux orchestres, allie deux éléments : le texte de l'Evangile et les commentaires. La sobriété relative, très dynamique, de récitatifs chantés par l'Evangéliste, dans lesquels interviennent fréquemment les protagonistes du drame (les personnages impliqués dans l'action ainsi que la foule, représentée par le choeur), fait donc alterner comme sur une scène de théâtre, le chant soliste et des épisodes choraux très puissants et expressifs. Des arie da capo, également chantés par les voix solistes, reviennent sur chaque moment important. De nombreux chorals luthériens, magnifiquement harmonisés par Bach, installent le tout dans la liturgie protestante du jour de la Passion (le Vendredi Saint).

Le leitmotiv de l'œuvre est la compassion, la passion pour l'autre, et l'abandon à la douleur. Qu'elles soient de joie ou de peine, amères ou libératrices, toute l'œuvre paraît baigner dans les larmes.

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