Koor & Orkest van de Nederlandse Bachvereniging . Jos van Veldhoven

Instead of presenting the same old version of Bach's 'St John Passion', the Netherlands Bach Society will perform the version based on a score that Bach completed in 1749. The original version that Bach presented to the municipality of Leipzig was dated 1724. A great deal of information can be gleaned from this very first version of the St John Passion. The musicologist Pieter Dirksen made a reconstruction based on it in 2001, which the Netherlands Bach Society tackled in the same year. Naturally there are identifiable differences in sound texture to the 'traditional' version; there is an absence of flutes in the orchestra for example; other chorales have been selected and the harmony has changed in the sense that the opening choral section is more dissonant. The conductor Jos van Veldhoven has set the piece for eight solo singers plus the Evangelist.