No 203 St Mark Passion I

N. Matthes: Markus-Passion, (Libretto von C. F. Henrici, genannt Picander)

Artists: Daniel Pérez (baritone – Jesus), Daniel Johannsen (tenor – Evangelist and arias), Georg Poplutz (tenor – Evangelist and arias), Marie Luise Werneburg (soprano), Annekathrin Laabs (alto), Matthias Helm (baritone – arias), Chor und Orchester »Gli Aspetti«, direction: Nikolaus Matthes

In attempts to reconstruct Bach’s St Mark Passion, all kinds of versions, largely parody-based, have been presented in recent decades. Conductor and composer Nikolaus Matthes took a resolutely different path and wrote a whole new setting for Picander’s libretto. Author Robert Schneider enthusiastically wrote of it: »There is not a single note by Bach and that is the incredible thing that drew me ever deeper into the Matthes version. He has achieved something I’ve never heard before in early music. The vehicle is Bach, but the music is contemporary through and through. Simply incredible.«.