Markus-Passion nach BWV 247
Erato
Erscheinungsdatum 2000
Spieldauer 118' 23"

Komponist: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
Text: Christian Friedrich Henrici, alis Picander
Rekonstruktion: Ton Koopman

 

Christoph Prégardien, Tenor (Evangelist)
Sibylla Rubens, Sopran
Bernhard Landauer, Altus
Paul Agnew, Tenor
Peter Kooy, Klaus Mertens, Bass
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
Amsterdam Baroque Choir
Boys of the Breda Sacrament Choir
Ton Koopman

Aufnahme: Waalse Kerk Amsterdam, September 1999
Katalognummer: 8573 80221-2 , 2 CDs

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Apart from the St. Matthew- and St. John Passion, Bach also composed a St. Mark Passion in 1731, performed in the same year with text by Picander. Unfortunately the music of this passion was lost, only the text remained.

The efforts to retrace the music have been numerous and we have to fear that we will never find it again, as so many of Bach's other lost works.

It appears to be possible to reconstruct the St. Mark Passion by using a method which was customary for Bach and his contemporaries, called parody. It means that certain chorals and aria's were reused in other works by the composer. The most significant examples of parody by Bach are his Christmas Oratorio and his B-Minor Mass. Bach even reused in this last work a movement from one of his earliest cantatas.

It often happened (see his Christmas Oratorio) that chorals, duets and aria's from secular cantatas were incorporated in church cantatas and oratorios after which they were provided with spiritual text. Trying this out on the St. Mark Passion, it appears that we find many possibilities to retrace chorals and aria's in several works, on which Picander's text fits extremely well as regards meaning and metrical foots.

Without ever knowing for certain, it may even be possible that we retrace in this way part of the real St. Mark Passion by Bach. In his works we find such a great number of chorals, that possible problems of that order also appear to be solvable. Only one real problem remains to be solved: Bach never reused his recitatives. These are lost forever. We can borrow them from other compositions, or have them recited or compose them ourselves. I have decided to compose the recitatives myself in the hope that our vast experience by currently recording all Bach cantata's for ERATO will make Bach's language increasingly evident and understandable.

I know it to be a difficult task to complement Bach's genial works, but I have no other choice then to take the risk. Furthermore, I have chosen other chorals, aria's and duets than my predecessors did in their reconstruction of the St.Mark Passion.

I sincerely hope that Bach would have been happy with my effort.

Ton Koopman - June 1998