Riccardo Chailly - Matthaus Passion

De opzienbarende Matthäus van Chailly

Riccardo Chailly werd na zestien jaar als chef-dirigent van het Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, in 2005 de Kapellmeister van het Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig. Daar werkte Johann Sebastian Bach als cantor van de Thomaskirche, waarvoor hij in 1729 de Matthäus Passion componeerde. Chailly is de erfgenaam van Bach, verantwoordelijk voor de Bach-uitvoeringen in de Thomaskirche. Zelf dirigeert hij Bach in de concertzaal van het Gewandhaus. Daar ontstond vorig jaar een opzienbarende live-opname van de Matthäus Passion. Nadat decennialang de ‘authentieke’ barokspecialisten dit repertoire beheersten, klinkt hier de unieke Bach van een wereldberoemde symfonische dirigent. Chailly heeft een krachtige greep op de grote vorm. Ademloos is het openingskoor Kommt ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen. Het treurende slotkoor Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder klinkt zoals men dat wil horen: alsmaar zachter. Chailly heeft een voortreffelijke cast, waaronder de bas Thomas Quasthoff. Transparant, beeldend en intens dirigerend komt hij tot vele dramatische passages en ontroerende aria’s. Spectaculair is Chailly in het befaamde Sind Blitze, sind Donner met dat ene moment van plotselinge totale stilte. Het is de spannendste maat die Bach ooit schreef: een bliksemsnelle val van de hoogste wolken naar de verschrikkingen van het onderaardse. Nooit eerder hoorde men in de Matthäus Passion zo’n vurig brandende hel, zo’n angstaanjagend pandemonium.

Kasper Jansen
oud-muziekredacteur NRC Handelsblad


JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750)
Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244

Johannes Chum tenor (Evangelist)
Hanno Müller-Brachmann bass (Jesus)
Christina Landshamer soprano (Arien/Magd I/Pilati Weib)
Marie-Claude Chappuis alto (Arien/Zeuge I/Magd II)
Maximilian Schmitt tenor (Arien/Zeuge II)
Thomas Quasthoff* bass (Arien/Pontifex I)
Klaus Häger bass (Judas/Petrus/Pilatus/Pontifex II)
Thomanerchor Leipzig (Director: Thomaskantor Georg Christoph Biller)
Tölzer Knabenchor (Director: Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden)
Gewandhausorchester
RICCARDO CHAILLY

Orchestral soloists (orchestra I & II)
Frank-Michael Erben violin I ·
Sebastian Breuninger violin II
Cornelia Grohmann, Stephanie Winker flute I ·
Wolfgang Loebner, Gudrun Hinze-Hönig flute II
Prof. Robert Ehrlich recorder I · Antje Hensel recorder II
Henrik Wahlgren, Thomas Hipper oboe/oboe d’amore I
Peter Heinze, Daniel Fuster oboe/oboe d’amore II
Gundel Jannemann-Fischer,
Simon Sommerhalder cor anglais
David Petersen bassoon I · Gottfried Kronfeld bassoon II
Thomas Fritzsch viola da gamba · Christian Giger cello ·
Christian Ockert double bass
Michael Schönheit chamber organ I ·
Denny Wilke chamber organ II

Genre:	Muziek
Subgenre:	Klassiek
Leeftijdsclassificatie:	Onbekend

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CD 1 80.31
Erster Teil · Part One · Première Partie
1 No. 1 Chorus: Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen 5:38
2 No. 2 Evangelist: Da Jesus diese Rede vollendet hatte 0:44
3 No. 3 Chorale: Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen 0:42
4 No. 4 Evangelist: Da versammleten sich die Hohenpriester 3:07
5 No. 5 Recitative (Alto): Du lieber Heiland du 0:52
6 No. 6 Aria (Alto): Buß und Reu 4:05
7 No. 7 Evangelist: Da ging hin der Zwölfen einer 0:38
8 No. 8 Aria (Soprano): Blute nur, du liebes Herz! 4:09
9 No. 9 Evangelist: Aber am ersten Tage der süßen Brot 2:15
10 No. 10 Chorale: Ich bin’s, ich sollte büßen 0:44
11 No. 11 Evangelist: Er antwortete und sprach 3:14
12 No. 12 Recitative (Soprano): Wiewohl mein Herz in Tränen schwimmt 1:16
13 No. 13 Aria (Soprano): Ich will dir mein Herze schenken 3:29
14 No. 14 Evangelist: Und da sie den Lobgesang gesprochen hatten 1:21
15 No. 15 Chorale: Erkenne mich, mein Hüter 0:53
16 No. 16 Evangelist: Petrus aber antwortete und sprach zu ihm 1:14
17 No. 17 Chorale: Ich will hier bei dir stehen 0:55
18 No. 18 Evangelist: Da kam Jesus mit ihnen zu einem Hofe 1:47
19 No. 19 Recitative (Tenor): O Schmerz! Hier zittert das gequälte Herz 1:37
20 No. 20 Aria (Tenor): Ich will bei meinem Jesu wachen 4:38
21 No. 21 Evangelist: Und ging hin ein wenig 0:45
22 No. 22 Recitative (Bass): Der Heiland fällt vor seinem Vater nieder 0:58
23 No. 23 Aria (Bass): Gerne will ich mich bequemen 4:11
24 No. 24 Evangelist: Und er kam zu seinen Jüngern 1:15
25 No. 25 Chorale: Was mein Gott will, das g’scheh allzeit 0:56
26 No. 26 Evangelist: Und er kam und fand sie aber schlafend 2:32
27 No. 27 Aria (Soprano, Alto): So ist mein Jesus nun gefangen 4:22
28 No. 28 Evangelist: Und siehe, einer aus denen 2:31
29 No. 29 Chorale: O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß 5:22
Zweiter Teil · Part Two · Deuxième Partie
30 No. 30 Aria (Alto): Ach, nun ist mein Jesus hin! 3:43
31 No. 31 Evangelist: Die aber Jesum gegriffen hatten 1:04
32 No. 32 Chorale: Mir hat die Welt trüglich gericht’ 0:42
33 No. 33 Evangelist: Und wiewohl viel falsche Zeugen herzutraten 1:11
34 No. 34 Recitative (Tenor): Mein Jesus schweigt zu falschen Lügen stille 1:02
35 No. 35 Aria (Tenor): Geduld! Wenn mich falsche Zungen stechen 3:30
36 No. 36 Evangelist: Und der Hohepriester antwortete 2:09
37 No. 37 Chorale: Wer hat dich so geschlagen 0:51
CD 2 79:39
1 No. 38 Evangelist: Petrus aber saß draußen im Palast 2:32
2 No. 39 Aria (Alto): Erbarme dich, mein Gott 5:46
3 No. 40 Chorale: Bin ich gleich von dir gewichen 1:03
4 No. 41 Evangelist: Des Morgens aber hielten alle Hohepriester 1:51
5 No. 42 Aria (Bass): Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder! 2:55
6 No. 43 Evangelist: Sie hielten aber einen Rat 2:13
7 No. 44 Chorale: Befiehl du deine Wege 1:02
8 No. 45 Evangelist: Auf das Fest aber hatte der Landpfleger Gewohnheit 2:31
9 No. 46 Chorale: Wie wunderbarlich ist doch diese Strafe! 0:45
10 No. 47 Evangelist: Der Landpfleger sagte 0:17
11 No. 48 Recitative (Soprano): Er hat uns allen wohlgetan 1:07
12 No. 49 Aria (Soprano): Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben 4:44
13 No. 50 Evangelist: Sie schrieen aber noch mehr 1:51
14 No. 51 Recitative (Alto): Erbarm es Gott! 0:56
15 No. 52 Aria (Alto): Können Tränen meiner Wangen 7:13
16 No. 53 Evangelist: Da nahmen die Kriegsknechte 1:04
17 No. 54 Chorale: O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden 2:02
18 No. 55 Evangelist: Und da sie ihn verspottet hatten 0:56
19 No. 56 Recitative (Bass): Ja freilich will in uns das Fleisch und Blut 0:37
20 No. 57 Aria (Bass): Komm, süßes Kreuz, so will ich sagen 5:29
21 No. 58 Evangelist: Und da sie an die Stätte kamen 3:33
22 No. 59 Recitative (Alto): Ach Golgatha 1:27
23 No. 60 Aria (Alto): Sehet, Jesus hat die Hand 3:03
24 No. 61 Evangelist: Und von der sechsten Stunde an 2:38
25 No. 62 Chorale: Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden 1:24
26 No. 63 Evangelist: Und siehe da, der Vorhang im Tempel zerriß 2:46
27 No. 64 Recitative (Bass): Am Abend, da es kühle war 1:49
28 No. 65 Aria (Bass): Mache dich, mein Herze, rein 5:52
29 No. 66 Evangelist: Und Joseph nahm den Leib 2:33
30 No. 67 Recitative (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass): Nun ist der Herr zur Ruh gebracht 2:27
31 No. 68 Chorus: Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder 5:06

BACH’S ST MATTHEW PASSION AND ITS RECEPTION AFTER 1800
The genesis of the St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) is, in many respects, still unclear. It may even date back to before 1727. Early in 1729 Bach was confronted with the extraordinary challenge of having to perform two large-scale compositions within only three weeks: on 24 March, the funeral music for his former employer, Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen, at a mourning service in the reformed Stadtkirche (St Jakob) in Köthen; and, on 15 April, the Passion at Good Friday Vespers in Leipzig’s Thomaskirche. It was therefore essential for him to coordinate the preparations for the two works. We have known for more than a hundred years that at least ten movements of the St Matthew Passion were also used in that funeral music for Köthen. The issue of parody relationships between the two works – the extent to which the Passion predates the funeral music – could not be adequately clarified until now. That the Passion music destined for performance on Good Friday 1729 must have existed in an earlier version (or been based upon one) can be deduced from Bach’s remark in a letter from 20 March to his pupil Christoph Gottlob Wecker: “With the Passion Musique you request I should be glad to oblige you if it were not needed by myself this year.” Bach turned down his pupil’s request because he was intending to perform the Passion music himself on the coming Good Friday and therefore could not lend it to him in the relatively distant Silesian town of Schweidnitz (now Świdnica, Poland).
* * *
“Passio Domini nostri J. C. secundum Evangelistam Matthaeum Poesia per Dominum Hen¬rici alias Picander dictus. Musica di G. S. Bach” is how the work is described on the calli¬graphic title-page of the fair copy that Bach prepared with the utmost care for a revival in 1736. His explicit reference to Christian Friedrich Henrici (alias Picander) indicates a close collaboration with the librettist in the work’s conception, especially in drafting the madri¬galian verses. Scholarship has recently established a direct connection between Henrici’s libretto and nine Passion sermons by the Rostock theologian Heinrich Müller (1631–1675). Bach’s private library contained a printed copy of Müller’s Passion sermons (Der leidende Jesus oder das Leyden unsers Herrn und Heylandes Jesu Christi), and we may assume that the Thomaskantor gave it to his librettist with the request of turning the best passages into verse for musical setting.
* * *
Of Picander’s Passion libretto there exists only a reprint in his poetry collection Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte, published for the Easter Mass of 1729. The original printed text for the presumed first performance in 1727 or for that of 1729 is, however, lost. Thus neither can be documented with absolute certainty. Evidence supporting a first perfor¬mance of the Passion on Good Friday 1727 may be gleaned from the fact that the Thomas¬kirche’s so-called “swallow’s nest” organ was repaired in that year by Zacharias Hilde¬brandt, making this small separate instrument available for playing the chorale cantus firmus “O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig” in the opening chorus. The repair may even have been under¬taken expressly for this performance.
* * *
A salient feature of the St Matthew Passion is its use of vocal and instrumental double-chorus writing, which Bach, with great differentiation in compositional means, develops consistently from the dialogue layout of Picander’s libretto. Imagining the performance at the Thomaskirche on Good Friday 1736, we may picture both vocal choirs with their respec¬tive orchestras performing in the west gallery, while the opening movement’s ripieno-soprano cantus firmus “O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig” is sounded on the opposite side, from the east gallery, joined by the “swallow’s nest” organ situated there. In Bach’s fair copy this Passion chorale is entered throughout in red ink, thereby pointing up its primacy over the madrigalian poetic text.
Many of the turba (crowd) choruses attain an almost visual impact through the double-choral layout, especially the mocking choruses (“Weissage uns, Christe, wer ist’s, der dich schlug?” and “Gegrüßet seist du, Jüdenkönig!”), in which the agitated crowds further provoke one another. Also characteristic of the St Matthew Passion is the heightened importance of lyrical elements, already apparent in the setting of Jesus’ words, which are always surround¬ed by shimmering string chords (suggesting a “halo”). Tellingly, the glow is absent at Christ’s abandonment on the Cross (“Eli, Eli, lama asabthani”) but returns with musically symbolic significance in the two last accompanied recitatives, “Am Abend, da es kühle war” (No. 64) and “Nun ist der Herr zur Ruh gebracht” (No. 67). Centrally important utterances (“Trinket alle daraus; das ist mein Blut”, “Ich werde den Hirten schlagen”) are set as string-accompanied arioso.
Another structural feature of the St Matthew Passion libretto is the sequencing of secco recitative (the Passion narrative), accompagnato recitative (free, reflective poetry) and arias, as Bach would also favour in his oratorios of 1734–35 (for Christmas and Ascension). Most of the pairs of accompagnato recitative and aria share instrumental scoring and thematic substance, and thus each constitutes an inseparable formal unit. The “heart” of the Passion proves to be the aria “Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben” (No. 49), with its unusual scor¬ing for transverse flute, two oboes da caccia and soprano. Exceptionally here, Bach dis¬penses with the obligatory bass support in order to represent in musical symbolism the inconceivable, that which cannot be reconciled with human thinking: Christ, free from sin, taking upon himself all the sins of the world.
Picander incorporated only two chorale texts into his Passion libretto: the cantus firmus chorale in the opening movement, “O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig”; and, in the tenor recitative “O Schmerz! Hier zittert das gequälte Herz” (No. 19), a strophe from the Passion song “Herz¬liebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen”. The remaining chorales seem to have been selected by Bach himself. They are almost always directly inserted into the Evangelist’s narrative as reflection or commentary. Like the arias and accompanied recitatives, the twelve chorale settings are intended as contemplation by the story’s observers.
The libretto of the St Matthew Passion documents – far more than that of the earlier St John Passion – a gradual change in understanding the Passion that had been under way since 1670. This was manifested above all in the yielding of dogmatic tradition to new expressive forms of individualistic piety, giving greater scope to the observer’s religious sensibilities.
* * *
How glad we would be to know how Bach’s gigantic Passion was received in its day by Leipzig’s music enthusiasts – including Bach’s own pupils and sons. From the comment “for the great Passion” (“zur groß Bassion” [sic]) found on a continuo part – presumably in the hand of Bach’s wife Anna Magdalena – we know that at least his family members were aware of the work’s uniqueness. Bach’s 1736 autograph copy of the score also may be taken as a sign that his “great Passion” was meant to serve as a musical legacy to posterity, to the generation of his sons and pupils. This legacy can even be sensed in Bach’s commitment to the verbatim biblical text, which in the autograph score appears throughout in red ink, indicating its priority over all other entries. This emphasis given to the original Passion text may also be evidence of Bach distancing himself from the widely circulated rhyming paraphrases produced by contemporary poets (among them Barthold Heinrich Brockes and Christian Friedrich Hunold). His careful efforts to restore his 1736 copy following damage, presumably caused by dampness, in the last years of his life (1743–46) are yet another sign of the special value Bach placed on this cornerstone of his artistic legacy.
* * *
As one would expect, there was no unanimous reaction to the performance of “figural”, or concerted, Passion music. When the Leipzig University professor Johann Florens Rivinus delivered a Passion sermon in the St Pauli university church on Good Friday 1728, he ordered that “before the sermon two Sterbelieder [chorales on the subject of death] or Passionslieder [Passion chorales]” should be sung “and two of the same following the sermon, set to quiet music that allows the entire congregation to sing along”. The explicit instruction to dispense with “figural” church music during Good Friday Vespers suggests some resistance to Passion settings in Leipzig. Thus one is led to ask: were the performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion uniformly admired by contemporary listeners or did the monumental work meet with opposition from certain church, city and school leaders? Indeed, could a three-hour-long Passion performance within the framework of a vesper service conceivably find undivided acclaim? Was it perhaps in reaction to critical voices raised against the St Matthew Passion in 1729 that the following year’s service included an anonymous and incomparably more modest setting of the St Luke Passion? And was it thus no coincidence that this should be followed on Good Friday 1731 by a work of equally spartan formal dimensions and conception, Bach’s (lost) St Mark Passion? He, too, was clearly exercising restraint.
* * *
Unfortunately, we know very little about the subsequent fate of Bach’s Passions in Leipzig. Three such works are reported by an unverifiable source to have been performed under the Thomaskantor Johann Friedrich Doles. Probably among them was the St Matthew Passion, which apparently was heard again in Leipzig around 1756. As further developments show, the Leipzig Bach performances – especially those of the motets and chorale cantatas – served as a breeding ground for the intensified revival of his works. In Berlin, it was Carl Friedrich Zelter in particular who regularly presented the Bach motets – and, in the years after 1811, the B minor Mass and more than sixty of the cantatas as well, usually cut but occasionally complete. At least parts of the two surviving Passions (the St Matthew and St John) were already being prepared and performed by the Berlin Sing-Akademie between 1815 and 1822 before Zelter and Mendelssohn, in March and April 1829, undertook the epoch-making venture of performing the St Matthew Passion in public for the first time, albeit heavily revised and radically cut. These sensational performances were followed by others: in May 1829 in Frankfurt am Main, in 1830 in Breslau, in 1832 in Königsberg and Kassel, in 1833 in Dresden, and in 1836 in Hanover. In Leipzig, however, such a performance was still not possible.
In early 1831 the Thomaskantor Christian Theodor Weinlig had prepared the piece with the forces of St Thomas’s but then, for reasons unknown, was forced to give up the project. The double-chorus orchestral scoring may have been an insurmountable obstacle to performing the work in those years. The Passion thus remained largely unknown in Bach’s own city, and on 2 January 1841 Mendelssohn could still write to his brother Paul about his concert plans at the Gewandhaus: “I have five subscription concerts and three additional concerts to conduct in January and, at the beginning of March, the Bach Passion, not a single note of which is known here.” On Palm Sunday (4 April) 1841 under his direction, the first nineteenth-century revival of the St Matthew Passion in Leipzig took place. The proceeds from Mendelssohn’s presentation in the Thomaskirche – where once again the work was heavily abridged – were dedicated to a planned Bach monument.
A complete performance was as yet unthinkable, and even one with numerous cuts was not to be undertaken lightly. Clara Schumann wrote of an 1837 concert in Berlin: “One chorus from [the Passion] every day and I should be pleased, but all seventy-seven choruses in Lento and Adagio in one sitting: that I have not yet learnt to endure. After the first part, I left.” Even in Berlin, the “Sebastian Bach capital” (as Giacomo Meyerbeer once called it), not everyone was a devotee or advocate of this vast work. Eight years after the death of his father, Felix Mendelssohn’s son Karl was forced to conclude with a sense of resignation that “because there were no public amusements on Good Friday half of Berlin wandered in from sheer boredom to hear the Passion by Bach, of which not one of them understood a thing; they fled yawning before it was over”.
* * *
Until the end of World War Two any attempt to capture the full work on disc faced some serious technical restrictions. When in March 1941 the Thomaskantor Günther Ramin con¬ducted the Passion for the Electrola label in the large hall of the (old) Gewandhaus, he was able to record only a heavily cut version. As each record side could hold no more than about four and a half minutes of music, a total of sixteen shellac discs were needed for the whole performance. Despite that, the now-legendary recording with the Thomanerchor and the Gewandhaus Orchestra set standards in its own day. A second Gewandhaus recording, this time intended to be complete, was halted in February 1956 by Ramin’s sudden death and remained a torso. It took another fourteen years before it was possible to realise the first complete recording with the Thomanerchor, Dresden’s Kreuzchor and the Gewandhaus Orchestra.
* * *
For this new recording, it was again possible to secure the services of two world-famous boys’ choirs: Leipzig’s Thomanerchor and the Tölzer Knabenchor. This extraordinary col¬laboration proved beneficial in every respect, with the double-chorus aspects of the work given additional prominence – far more than in any previous recording – through the differing tonal colour of the two boys’ choirs. The present recording, based on concerts given in the main hall of the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 2 and 3 April 2009, is part of a comprehensive Bach cycle that the Gewandhaus Orchestra under its principal conductor Riccardo Chailly began with great success in 2007 and will be continuing in the coming years. Apart from the St Matthew Passion, 2010 will bring the release of new CD recordings of the Brandenburg Concertos and the Christmas Oratorio. The recorded works have been performed not only in Leipzig but also on several European tours. When the St Matthew Passion was given on 5 April 2009 at the Barbican Centre in London, the Times reviewer wrote that “every tempo sounded so right, so inevitable, that one could hardly imagine it any other way [. . .] All this, and more, made this performance a miracle of uncontrived, instinctive music-making.”
Andreas Glöckner
1/2010