St John Passion

J.S. Bach (Artist), La Chapelle Rhenane (Artist), Haller (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 11, 2010)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Zig Zag Territories
• ASIN: B0036V4DMG
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #450,278 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 1. No. 1. Chorus. Herr, unser Herrscher, dessen Ruhm

2. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 1. No. 2. Jesus ging mit seinen Jüngern über den Bach Kidron

3. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 1. No. 3. Choral. O große Lieb, o Lieb ohn alle Maße

4. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 1. No. 4. Auf dass das Wort erfüllet würde, welches er sagte

5. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 1. No. 5. Choral. Dein Will gescheh, Herr Gott, zugleich

6. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 1. No. 6. Die Schar aber und der Oberhauptmann

7. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 1. No. 7. Aria. Von den Stricken meiner Sünden

8. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 1. No. 8. Simon Petrus aber folgete Jesu nach und ein ander Jünger

9. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 1. No. 9. Aria. Ich folge dir gleichfalls mit treudigen Schritten

10. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 1. No. 10. Derselbige Jünger war dem Hohenpriester bekannt

See all 15 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 2. No. 15. Choral. Christus, der uns selig macht

2. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 2. No. 16. Da führten sie Jesum von Kaipha vor das Richthaus

3. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 2. No. 17. Choral. Ach großer König, groß zu allen Zeiten

4. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 2. No. 18. Da sprach Pilatus zu ihm

5. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 2. No. 19. Aria. Ach windet euch nicht so, geplagte Seelen

6. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 2. No. 21. Und die Kriegsknechte Hochten eine Krone von Dornen

7. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 2. No. 22. Choral. Durch dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn

8. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 2. No. 23. Die Jüden aber schrieen und sprachen

9. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 2. No. 24. Aria & Chorus. Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen

10. St. John Passion (Johannespassion), BWV 245 (BC D2): Part 2. No. 25. Allda kreuzigten sie ihn, und mit ihm zween andere

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new way to experience the St. John Passion, July 1, 2010

By 

I. Martinez-Ybor "Ignacio Martínez-Ybor" (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: St John Passion (Audio CD)

La Chapelle Rhenane, the Strasbourg-based virtuoso group of vocal and instrumental musicians under the direction of Benoit Haller, gives us here an intensely dramatic, vividly contemporary, thoroughly musical, chamber version of Bach's Passion According to St. John. This is not a one-voice-to-a-part performance, but rather all vocal and instrumental forces have been reduced to a minimum so that the drama of the text can be intimately yet forcefully projected and the lines of instrumental music clearly inflected and differentiated. By no means is this an austere performance. Rather Haller's musicians force you to pay attention. The pieces in which soloists and chorus interact acquire dramatic immediacy with these reduced forces while maintaining individual differentiation between the lines of say, turba and soloist. Among the soloist it is noteworthy that the Evangelist is marvelously sung by tenor Julien Pregardien, son of the famous tenor, himself a great Evangelist, Christoph Pregardien. All soloists and the reduced choral forces are indeed vocal virtuosos. Some measures are taken at speeds much faster than I have ever heard in a St. John Passion, yet at no time is a note slurred, a line smudged: everything is always clear. The same can be said for the instrumentalists.

A more traditional approach to the St. John Passion, which, like La Chapelle Rhenane's version, attempts to solve some of the textual differences given Bach's various versions of the work, can best be found in Phillipe Herreweghe's extraordinary versionBach: St. John Passion. However, the different, more bracing view of the work given here by Benoit Haller deserves a place on the shelf next to Herreweghe's. It is Bach's genius that there is no one way to his music. As John Eliott Gardiner is showing us in his cantata pilgrimage, Herreweghe in his St. John's, and here Mr. Haller so ably demonstrates, there is endless variety of perspective with which to view the Bach ouvre. Haller gives us a version that seems very right for our time, suffused with human feeling and passion, projecting text in a manner far removed from the pietistic garb that elsewhere can smother it. When it comes to Bach, we are past any orthodoxy.

The recording is clear, natural and wide ranging. The notes are interesting even if the print is small. Text is provided. Highly recommended. Even as a first St. John's.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Passion for our times., April 21, 2011

By 

Kenneth C (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: St John Passion (Audio CD)

Half a century later, and the second World War seems to have taught us nothing of the value of human dignity, the world still wracked by wars wrought in the name of race and religion and greed.

Catastrophes are now commonplace, regular spectacles splashed on TV screens and newspapers. Earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, all in the space of a handful of months.

All art has to answer this one question: how do we live? How do we go on in these times?

Benoît Haller's response isn't one of consolation. He exposes the rawness of human agony plainly: listen to the way the continuo grunts and tears into the opening chorus. His response is apocalyptic; through Bach he makes us stare into the pits of our own hopelessness.

All his singers and instrumentalists seem to be in the same sinking boat. They strain and struggle because they sing about life and death.