Koor en Orkest Collegium Vocale Gent - Philippe Herreweghe

At the first performance of the Matthäus Passion, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) introduced a dramatic innovation: he laid down a string accompaniment for the recitals of the part of Jesus, in order to underline these words with a distinct aura of holiness. In this manner, the Mathäus Passion became one of the most expressive and dramatic masterworks and the absolute pinnacle of his activities as Thomascantor in Leipzig. In contrast to the Johannes Passion, the oratorium was conceived of as a unified whole from the start. It has an impressive double choir and an enlarged spectrum of arias and madrigals. For the first time, a composition made general use of the combination of arioso and arias. Christian Friedrich Henrici (1700-1762), better known as Picander, created the text. It is a coherent libretto created especially for this magnificent composition. Since at least a hundred years, the literary quality of the writing no longer seems to chime with the standards of good taste. Nevertheless, Henrici's libretto is exemplary with respect to the expressive cult of emotions, which in the late Baroque, and pre-eminently in Lutheran Pietism of the early 18th Century, was considered a mark of true virtue and piety.