Passion according to Saint Matthew

On Palm Sunday, entering the period of final preparations for Easter, we will listen to the Passion according to Saint Matthew Johann Sebastian Bach. This monumental work sounded for the first time on Good Friday 1727 or 1729 in St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. At NFM we will hear them interpreted by an international cast of soloists, the NFM Choir and the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Jarosław Thiel.

The genius of the musical theologian from Eisenach invariably fascinates. Both of his works that have survived to this day, based on the story of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ written in the Gospels, were created in the late period of the composer's work. The passion according to St. Matthew is the younger one. Exactly a century after its premiere, it was her performance at the Berlin Sing-Academy, led by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, that gave rise to the revival of interest in the music of the Baroque master, which continues to this day. It was also her first presentation outside Leipzig — now she can be heard all over the world.

Acquainted with this masterpiece, we will witness the Last Supper, the prayer in Ogrowiec, the capture of Jesus, as well as His trial, crucifixion and burial. The action here does not proceed at a uniform pace. It is sometimes stopped so that the events acquire a deeper theological context, consistent with the thought of the composer's epoch. The biblical texts were supplemented with fragments of Lutheran chants and a poetic commentary by the German librettist Christian Friedrich Henrici, known under the pseudonym Picander. Bach's composed sounds move to the depths, an excellent testimony to his mastery of musical rhetoric. The creator himself, moreover, considered the Passion according to St. Matthew to be his most outstanding achievement.