J. S. Bach: St Mark Passion | A Contemporary Reconstruction by Bálint Karosi | BWV 247
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- Опубліковано 28 чер 2024
- The origins of Bach’s St. Mark Passion (BWV 247) go back to the Trauer-Ode (Lass, Fürstin, lass noch einen Strahl,” BWV 198), a funeral cantata written in 1727 for Electress Christiane Eberhardine of Saxony. Composed for a specific occasion, the Trauer-Ode was no longer of any practical use once it had been performed, so already in 1729, two years before the first performance of the St Mark Passion, Bach incorporated some of its individual movements into another secular-sacred work, (Köthener Trauermusik, BWV 244a) through the process of parody.
Evidence for the existence of the St. Mark Passion exists in the form of the libretto by Picander, Bach’s most important author of texts, published in the third part of his Ernst-, Sherzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte of 1732, with a reference to the first performance of the passion on Good Friday in 1731, in Leipzig. Another printed copy of the text of the St. Mark Passion, discovered in the Russian National Library in 2009, not only testifies to a hitherto unknown repeat performance at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, by Bach in 1744, but also reveals that both the text and the music had been revised by adding two arias.
Like Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248), the St. Mark Passion is a musical parody, in which newly composed poetry is retrofitted to existing music. Based on historical context, the five movements borrowed from the Trauer-Ode are still today the only ones that can be regarded with certainty as parody models for the St. Mark Passion. Many different suggestions have been put forward for the likely form of those parts of the St. Mark Passion that must now be regarded as lost, namely the remaining arias, turba choruses and the recitatives.
In my reconstruction of the St Mark Passion, the passion narrative, (the Evangelist, Jesus, Pilate, etc., and the crowd choruses) is set in English, and the chorales are transposed to a singable, hymn-like tessitura to make congregational participation easier.
My version of the missing parts of the St Mark Passion are in a distinctively modern, contemporary musical language, somewhat related to jazz and American minimalism. By contrasting the musical language of the passion narrative to that of the arias and chorales by Bach, I created transparency to a work that has come down to us as incomplete. I also wanted to present the passion narrative in English vernacular in a contemporary musical language, perhaps more appealing to certain contemporary audiences. The different musical and sung languages make my version of the St. Mark Passion a truly contemporary, non-historicizing reconstruction, aiming to achieve a similar experience to that which Bach’s Leipzig audiences might have felt when they heard the passion narrative sung in their own language, and in a familiar musical language. With the use of period instruments, Baroque pitch, and unequal temperament, however, I create a certain “sonic coherence” to the whole work, and provide the possibility for an uncompromised, historical performance practice for Bach’s original parts.
0:00 Opening Chorus BWV 198/1
5:30 2a Recit (BK)
5:58 2b Chorus “not upon the feast” (BK)
6:20 2c Recit (BK)
7:00 2d Chorus “why was this fragrant oil wasted?” BK)
7:54 3 Chorale BWV 258
8:43 4 Recit (BK)
10:42 5 Chorale BWV 244/32
11:27 6a Recit (BK)
11:43 6b Chorus “where do you want us to go?” (BK)
12:30 6c Recit (BK)
14:32 6d Chorus “surely not I” ( (BK)
16:03 8 Recit (BK)
18:27 9 Alto Aria BWV 198/5
24:32 10 Recit (BK)
25:27 11 Chorale BWV 397
26:24 12a Recit (BK)
27:35 12b Tenor Aria BWV 2/5
32:02 12c Recit (BK)
33:28 13 Chorale BWV 428
34:22 14 Recit (BK)
35:22 15 Chorale BWV 377
36:06 16 Recit (BK)
38:11 17 Soprano Aria BWV 198/3
41:10 18 Recit (BK)
42:04 19 Alto Aria BWV 54/1
47:20 20 Recit (BK)
48:37 21 Chorale BWV 245/14
49:37 22 Recit (BK)
50:21 23 Chorale BWV 135/1
55:42 24 Tenor Aria BWV 198/8
59:03 25a Recit (BK)
01:00:01 25b Chorus (BK)
01:00:56 25c Recit (BK)
01:01:09 26 Chorus BWV 258
01:01:57 27 Recit (BK)
01:02:24 28 Chorale
01:03:23 29a Recit (BK)
01:04:21 29b Chorus “Prophesy” (BK)
01:05:22 30 Chorale BWV 244/54
01:06:21 31a Recit (BK)
01:07:37 31b Chorus (BK)
01:08:59 32 Chorale BWV 331
01:09:55 33a Recit (BK)
01:11:02 33b Alto Aria BWV 173/3
01:12:30 33c Recit (BK)
01:13:46 33d Chorus “Crucify” (BK)
01:14:42 33f Chorus “Crucify” (BK)
01:15:38 34 Angenehmes Mordgeschrei BWV 171/1
01:20:07 35a Recit (BK)
01:20:56 35b Chorus (BK)
01:21:33 36 Chorale BWV 353
01:22:44 37 Recit (BK)
01:24:24 38 Chorale BWV 80/8
01:25:22 39a Recit (BK)
01:25:58 39b Chorus “ha-ha” (BK)
01:27:05 39c Recit (BK)
01:27:16 39d Chorus “He saved others” (BK)
01:28:00 39e Recit (BK)
01:29:17 40 Chorale BWV 369
01:30:12 41 Recit & Chorus "He is calling for Elijah" (BK)
01:31:14 42 Bass Aria BWV 245a
01:34:59 43 Recit (BK)
01:37:33 44 Chorale BWV 244/63
01:38:07 45 Recit (BK)
01:38:48 46 Chorus BWV 198/10
Credits: www.saintpeters.org/news/2023/3/9/press-release-johann-sebastian-bach-st-mark-passion-bwv-247
I haven’t listened to this piece in a long time. Thank you for your beautiful rendition!
Excellent performers. Audio pickup top notch.
This is long overdue.
Nagyon jol!!
Köszi Kedves Balint!
Mihály
Awesome!
Can't wait!!
I once heard a radio broadcast of parts of this. Your reconstruction is impressive. The composer of the St. John and St. Matthew Passions is evident. What can' t you do? Soloist, scholar, educator. Able to explain historic and modern instruments to non- musicians. I hope you keep your "base" in the U.S. From Chicago, U.S.A.
Congratulations on a respectful and considered St Mark. An excellent fusion of contemporary and historical, much like an architectural completion of a building fragment with a wholly modern addition.
Csodálatos!
Fabulous. I really want to see one of your performances Mr.Karosi. I will be in Leipzip for BachFest the last weekend and if you could possible put something one it would be a joy to see you play Bach in any capacity. Thank you for posting these.
Excellent!!
Send a ms to John Eliot!!
@@thomassciaroni6942I’d love tp
I admit to being apprehensive when I began listening to this -- my experience with "reconstructions" of lost works has not always been positive. But I was captivated by the new sections, especially the choruses. #29c is first-rate choral writing, as is 39b. Bravo, Maestro Karosi!
A fine performance Balint
I'd be curious to know why this completion (which would be the more neutral term) is called a "reconstruction". The idea of a reconstruction would be to reimagine how Bach would have dealt with these texts, and (if no musical material survives) at the very least trying to make it sound like Bach. Now that may not be everyone's cup of tea, but that's what a reconstruction is.