The composer uses the libretto written by Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander),[1] first used by Johann Sebastian Bach for the Good Friday's service in St. Thomas Church in Leipzig in 1731.
Therefore, it is the first integral setting to music of this libretto since Bach in 1731, and the first contemporary one completely following the baroque style.
[2] The piece has been first performed in March 2023 in four Swiss cities, Zurich, Bern, Basel and Lucerne.
There is a fourth one, St Mark's,[6] of which only the text has survived; the music is completely lost.
The text, written by Bach's librettist Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander), has survived in two slightly different sources, dating to 1731 and 1744.
All these versions have Picander's text as their basis and are based on the assumption that Bach, for his St Mark Passion of 1731, has re-used music which he had composed in the years before.
This may be music with a similar theme or topic, or with comparable rhyme or language schemes used in other vocal works of Bach (for example, from the Trauerode, BWV 198,[8] or the sacred cantata Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54),[8] then re-used with the «parody» method often used by Bach in other occasions, and then matched with the text of the Passion of St Mark.
There is no secure scientific insight which pieces Bach might have used for his St Mark Passion,[9] there is also no evidence that he did so at all.
The very strict order of the text always changing between the Gospel and the Chorales or the Arias is only once interrupted by an instrumental interlude (in No.
This is – beside the addition of two more chorale texts in the opening and final choruses of the passion (see below) – the only divergence from Picander's libretto.
The second part, in contrast to the first one, is a lot in favour of the Turba choruses of the People, commenting on the plot or even acting in it themselves.
The high density of Chorales with a total of 16 (in comparison: in Bach's St John Passion there are 11, in his St Matthew Passion there are 13) has led to give the Chorale a very high importance as a musical form in the new composition.
The words of Jesus are – as they are in Bach's St Matthew Passion – set as Accompagnato Recitatives with accompaniment by the strings.
They describe and concentrate in observing or dramatic manner the events from the point of view of the disciples of Jesus, the High Priests or the People.
There are – obviously – the strings, accompanied by a big Basso Continuo group, including two harpsichords, organ, lute and also bassoon, celli and double basses.