About the work
Johann Sebastian Bach's „St John Passion" (BWV 245) was premiered on Good Friday 1724 in the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig. It is Bach's first great Passion in Leipzig and chronologically earlier than the St Matthew Passion. The work is more dramatic, shorter (just over two hours) and more conflict-charged than the later sister Passion.
Plot
The narrative follows the Gospel of John, chapters 18-19, with insertions from Matthew (Peter's denial, the earthquake). The two parts cover: arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, interrogation before the high priests, Peter's denial, the Pilate scene with its dramatic back-and-forth between Pilate, crowd and Christ (the crowd repeatedly cries „Crucify, crucify!"), scourging, crucifixion, death, burial. Bach's view of John's Gospel is theologically particularly attentive to the question of power: Pilate's going out and going in, the oscillation between law and the will of the crowd. Highlights: the opening chorus „Herr, unser Herrscher"; the dramatic crowd chorus „Sei gegrüßet, lieber Jüdenkönig"; the bass aria „Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen" with echo effect; the moving death tableau „Es ist vollbracht" (alto aria with solo viola da gamba); the closing chorale „Ach Herr, lass dein lieb Engelein".
Cultural significance
The St John Passion is, after the St Matthew Passion, the most important Protestant Passion setting. The anti-Jewish crowd choruses („We have no king but Caesar", „Crucify!") are framed in modern performances with theologically critical reflection — the question of Bach's anti-Judaism has been intensively debated since the 1980s. The Passion exists in four different Bach versions (1724, 1725, 1732, 1749) — modern performances usually choose the first. Recordings under Helmuth Rilling, John Eliot Gardiner and René Jacobs are reference performances.