Bach's powerful, intimate work, St John Passion, is often wrongly deemed inferior to St Matthew Passion, argues Eileen Battersby
On Good Friday 1724, the first performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's Passio secundum Johannem (St John Passion) took place in St Nicholas's church in Leipzig. For all its beauty, it would soon be overshadowed by his St Matthew Passion, a far larger and more theatrical work scored for double choir and two orchestras. The two works, though contrasting in scale, share the majesty and lyric humanity that is Bach. Next Tuesday, the Irish Baroque Orchestra and the Resurgam choir under Mark Duley, give the first of three performances of St John Passion in the atmospheric setting of the Church of St Nicholas of Myra in Francis Street, Dublin.
St John Passion is a subtle and dramatic work, if not operatic or theatrical. Its often tender and gentle intimacy is achieved through the characterisation of that most expressive of narrators, the Evangelist. That the work was performed only 10 months after his arrival in Leipzig indicates the industry of Johann Sebastian Bach, church organist, teacher, musical genius, good Lutheran and one of the greatest artists of all time, would bring to his appointment as Kantor of St Thomas's choir school in Leipzig. For all his gifts, he didn't have an easy life and the town authorities in Leipzig consistently interfered with his plans as if determined to keep him in his place. Bach's art has grace, formal beauty and, despite his improvisational artistry, near mathematical exactness, yet his enduring appeal lies in the humanity and emotion expressed in his music.
There is also the stroppy individuality that helped create it. The spirit of rebellion was an essential element in Bach's personality and he never enjoyed easy relations with authority.
It is difficult for us in this age of indulged superstars to comprehend the depths of Bach's frustrations. He was born into a musical dynasty, yet circumstances made his childhood hard. Both of his parents were dead before he reached the age of 11 and there was no chance of a university education for him. Poverty proved an ongoing difficulty. His much loved first wife died young and he would suffer the death of several of his many children from two marriages in an age when infant mortality was routine and couples tended to have new babies practically every year for about 20 years.
This fact helps to remind us that however timeless his music is, Bach was very much a man of his time. His Germany was a collection of individual states, not a nation. Italy was a source of musical inspiration, as was French court music.
Bach lived a provincial existence. On accepting the post in Leipzig, he never travelled abroad. Genius or not, he was a working musician. Music was his job, not just artistic expression and even in the very creation of his work he had contend with constraints. On being appointed Kantor of St Thomas's, he had no choice but to listen as the Leipzig town council which regarded the newcomer as an employee not an artist, advise that he should only "produce such compositions as are not theatrical in nature". In other words, the conservative Leipzig burghers having experienced opera prior to his arrival, did not want any more. The council also wanted to ensure Bach knew his music was intended for divine service and the slightest traces of operatic influence would be unwelcome.
About 10 months after taking up the Leipzig post, Bach first performed his St John Passion. It was Good Friday 1724, the venue St Nicholas's Church, the second of the two principal churches in Leipzig, the other being St Thomas. No contemporary reports survive informing us of the initial reaction. But it is significant that Bach continued to edit and alter the piece - there are four versions. It will be the fourth time Mark Duley has conducted St John Passion. His Resurgam will join forces with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, with guest leader baroque violinist Maya Homburger. The soloists include Robin Tritschler as the Evangelist, bass Michael George sings Christus, Owen Willetts is the counter tenor, Sean Clayton tenor and Lynda Lee soprano.
From the glories of the opening chorale to the closing plea, "Christ, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace, amen", this is a subtle masterpiece in which the audience is a witness and becomes part of a congregation. A live church performance of this is not to be missed. St Nicholas of Myra occupies the site of a 17th-century chapel that was built on the site of a ruined Franciscan friary founded about 1233.
Often wrongly dismissed as inferior to the madrigalesque splendours and lyrical contemplations of St Matthew Passion (1727), a huge work scored for double choir and orchestra, St John Passion is more intimate, even personal. It is powerfully dramatic through the interventional tone of the Evangelist's recitatives and the choruses of the turbae (the people, the high priests etc) without being either truly operatic or theatrical. It centres on Pilate's dilemma and highlights the cruelty of the crowd. The drama lies in Bach's approaching the events of the Passion in musical forms.
Unlike opera, in which the events largely occur on stage and narrative tends to be interpreting rather than describing the action, the Passion depends on the Evangelist as witness. The story of Christ's sufferings, from betrayal and denial, to crucifixion, death and burial are represented, not enacted.
Considering the constraints Bach worked under, the magnificence of his Passions are all the more to be wondered at. Only two, the St John and the St Matthew, of the possible five including the incomplete St Mark, survive.
Few would dispute Bach's status as the supreme composer. Ask any musicians about music and they invariably say, "it all looks to Bach". Yet after his death, his work was forgotten. It was Mendelssohn who in 1829, revived St Matthew Passion. It took almost another century for musicians to reconsider St John Passion.
Together these works stand today, more than 250 years after Bach's death, as part of his extraordinary legacy, a cohesive and supreme contribution to Western art. There is always the beautiful irony that he was a church organist, doing his job and celebrating his God. On a more academic note, it should be acknowledged that Bach's Passions, with their increased number of chorales, represent the high point of a great German musical tradition extending back to the Middle Ages when the story of the crucifixion was told each Easter in unaccompanied plainsong settings.
These settings themselves are rooted in ancient practices, dating back as far as the 4th century when a priest would recite the Gospel story of Christ's Passion during Holy Week. By the 12th century, what was a religious ritual had also become a performance involving three clergy, now singing instead of reciting; a tenor Narrator, a bass Christ and alto crowd. The traditional setting form remained and over time became more sophisticated. Exciting innovations were introduced during the 16th century when the plainchant narrative was regularly interspersed with polyphonic choruses. In some churches the Latin text was translated into the vernacular. The congregation became involved through the introduction of chorales.
Passions were already moving on from simple narratives to complex dramas by the time of Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672). Born exactly 100 years before Bach, he composed the first German opera and intensified the drama of the settings. The devout may not have liked theatre in the church but dramatic elements had won their place. This was the tradition and form Bach was to inherit and - as the very different yet equally majestic St John Passion and St Matthew Passion confirm - so masterfully, and movingly, perfect.
• Irish Baroque Orchestra and Resurgam perform St John Passion at St Nicholas of Myra in Dublin, Apr 3; Waterford at the chapel of the Good Shepherd, WIT on Apr 4 and in the Church of St Nicholas Galway on Good Friday
