Saint Matthew Passion

Johann Sebastian Bach – Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy                                                                 Saint Matthew Passion                                                                                                                Oratorio in one part, in German

The Saint Matthew Passion is Bach's greatest work, one which constitutes an unsurpassable pinnacle not only of Protestant church music, but in the universal history of music. Forgotten after Bach's death, the work was played in Berlin on 11 March 1829, a century after its original performance, with Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy conducting. The composer and conductor adapted the work to Romantic tastes in music performance, shortened it by a third, and employed an enormous (158-person) chorus and an orchestra scaled to match it. The resounding success resulted in a repeat performance on March 21, Bach's birthday, which became a significant social event: present were both the court and the crème de la crème of the contemporary German intelligentsia. This launched the Bach renaissance, and in a wider sense, the general practice of resurrecting earlier music.

The original publisher of the oratorio - Publisher: Bärenreiter Verlag / Urtext Edition - Bärenreiter Praha s.r.o.

General cast
Conductor....... Gábor Csiki
Evangelist....... Zoltán Megyesi
Jesus.............. István Kovács
Soprano.......... Gabriella Fodor
Alto................. Atala Schöck
Tenor.............. István Horváth
Bass............... Marcell Bakonyi

Credits
Director: Géza M. Tóth
Visual design and animation: Tibor Nagy / Miklós Gerdelics / Antonin Krizsanics / Balázs Fekti / Géza M. Tóth
Consultant: Zsolt Czakó
Chorus director: Gábor Csiki
Featuring: Hungarian State Opera Chorus
Head of the Children's Chorus: Nikolett Hajzer

Photo by Nagy Attila