ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE
Johannes-Passion BWV 245
Reinoud Van Mechelen tenor – evangelist
Krešimir Stražanac bass- Christus
Philipp Kaven bass – Pilatus
Dorothee Mields soprano
Alex Potter countertenor
Guy Cutting tenor
Johannes Kammler bass
Collegium Vocale Gent
Philippe Herreweghe conductor
Bach’s St. John Passion was first performed in Leipzig on Good Friday in 1724. Although it fit in the still-new tradition of his predecessor Kuhnau, the shock caused by his emotional rendering of Jesus’ suffering and death must have been unprecedented. Since it lacked the ‘exceptional degree of perfection’ he would achieve with his St. Matthew Passion, Bach kept revising the piece, adding and removing choruses and arias, but he always stayed with the Gospel text, convincingly expressing its dramatic potential.