ARTTU KATAJA
baritone

One year after its first performance, the St John Passion was performed again on 30 March 1725. For this quick reprise, Bach made some fundamental changes to the piece. He wrote a new opening chorus: ‘O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groβ’, which he also used later in the St Matthew Passion. He replaced the closing chorale with ‘Christe, du Lamm Gottes’, which he had written earlier. The vehement ‘Zerschmettert mich’ took the place of ‘Ach mein Sinn’, and instead of ‘Betrachte meine Seel’ and ‘Erwäge’ he wrote the aria ‘Ach windet euch nicht so’. He also wrote a third new aria: ‘Himmel reiβe’. The masterly new opening transformed the whole Passion into a more subdued piece. The new ending, too, is a call for compassion. During the corona crisis in 2021 – when the Netherlands Bach Society’s annual tour of the St Matthew Passion could not take place – conductor René Jacobs deliberately opted to perform this version instead. This recording was made by Dutch broadcaster NTR on March 30th 2021 at the Grote Kerk, Naarden and made available to All of Bach. If you want to help us complete All of Bach, please subscribe to our channel http://bit.ly/2vhCeFB and consider donating http://bit.ly/2uZuMj5. For more information on BWV 245 and this production go to http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-245-ii/ All of Bach is a project of the Netherlands Bach Society / Nederlandse Bachvereniging, offering high-quality film recordings of the works by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society and its guest musicians. Visit our free online treasury for more videos and background material https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach. For concert dates and further information go to https://www.bachvereniging.nl/nederlandse-bachvereniging. Netherlands Bach Society René Jacobs, conductor Soloists Daniel Johannsen, evangelist (tenor) Robin Johannsen, soprano Alber