Johann Sebastian Bach: |Markus-Passion

Experience just how beautiful the fruits of music research can sound. Of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Mark Passion, only Picander’s textbook survives. In 2009, however, a discovery at St Petersburg aroused global attention: two of Picander’s arias, which had previously been unknown, were found at the Russian State Library. These are unquestionably part of the St Mark Passion, and seamlessly fit into its libretto. Such a discovery cannot, of course, remain fruitless: Alexander Grychtolik is the first music scholar to have reconstructed the resulting late version of the St Mark Passion. Yet what good is the most exciting of finds if one cannot hear it? This spectacular rediscovery makes its inspiring journey away from the researcher’s study-desk with the present performance by the Knabenkantorei Basel and the Capriccio Barockorchester, and now shines in its full splendour. Under the direction of Markus Teutschbein and with a renowned set of soloists (Gudrun Sidonie Otto, Terry Wey, Daniel Johannsen, Stephan McLeod, and Hanno Müller- Brachmann), the recording creates an experience that is 250 years old, and stunningly recent at the same time. The late version of the St Mark Passion is available as a double-disc, couched in extensive bilingual liner notes.