It's well known that Renaissance masses were written for inclusion in church services, not to be performed as concert works without a break, and recordings of them performed that way are available. Not so commonly realized is that Bach's Passion settings were the same way, with the two large halves surrounding a sermon and framed with congregational singing, organ works, and other music. Conductor John Butt and his Dunedin Consort here offer what is likely the first performance in this manner of the St. John Passion, BWV ...
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It's well known that Renaissance masses were written for inclusion in church services, not to be performed as concert works without a break, and recordings of them performed that way are available. Not so commonly realized is that Bach's Passion settings were the same way, with the two large halves surrounding a sermon and framed with congregational singing, organ works, and other music. Conductor John Butt and his Dunedin Consort here offer what is likely the first performance in this manner of the St. John Passion, BWV 245, or for that matter of either of Bach's Passions. The work is sung by a small (but not one-voice-per-part) choir, with a larger group singing chorales at the beginning. There's even a sermon, but you have to download it. That's not an ideal solution, but it's understandable. The main revelation from hearing the work this way is that the work is not a dramatic, opera-like setting of the Passion story but a reflection upon that story. As Butt says, "Bach's Oratorio Passions doubled...
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