SKU: BA.BVK02494

ISBN 9783761824948. 37.5 x 24.5 cm inches. Text Language: English, German. Preface: Barbara Schneider-Kempf.

“I have never experienced such silence or seen an audience moved in this way.” Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Up to the present day there has scarcely been a work in the history of music which has fascinated listeners and performers more than Bach’s “St Matthew Passion”. Originally composed for Vespers on Good Friday, and even longer in duration than the “St John Passion”, it reconstructs the story of Christ’s Passion with immense musical, emotional and spiritual intensity.

And so, this monumental and complex composition has come to rank amongst the high points of Western culture. For good reason the “rediscovery” of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music began in 1829 with the performance of this work by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and the Berlin Singakademie.

The autograph manuscript is regarded as one of Bach’s most beautiful – the fair copy demonstrates the importance he attached to the careful preservation of the work for posterity. A further spezial feature is the coloured ink with which he wrote the biblical text and the music of the chorale “O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig”.

This facsimile edition reproduces the autograph score of the “St Matthew Passion” for the first time in high-quality colour printing. The Bach specialist Christoph Wolff introduces the background to the work’s composition and the characteristics of the manuscript.

Barbara Schneider-Kempf and Martina Rebmann (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) provide further details regarding the history of the autograph manuscript.

SKU: CA.3124402

ISBN 9790007187873. Language: German/English.

Practical performing Urtext edition based on the latest state of Bach research. Every era hears and interprets Bach anew, and every era also evaluates the sources afresh and with new eyes. 40 years after the publication of the St. Matthew Passion in the New Bach Edition, Klaus Hofmann, Director of the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute Gottingen for many years and a contributing editor to the New Bach Edition, presents a new edition. Hofmann has placed the study of the sources at the service of musical practice and the detailed investigation of Bach's intentions. Bach scholars are well aware that Bach's original score and performance parts, running to almost 500 pages of music, are full of ambiguities and contradictions, particularly regarding articulation, which constantly challenge performers to new interpretations. Hofmann discusses these and other problems in a concise critical report, frequently arriving at new conclusions in the process. Extensive notes about parallel passages offer valuable help for interpretation. Special attention was devoted to the performance material with regard to practical needs. Thus, for example the text incipits are also printed in the instrumental parts (including tacet passages). In short - an Urtext edition for practical performance based on the latest findings in Bach research. Score available separately - see item CA.3124400.

SKU: HL.14016392

ISBN 9780853603115. 9.0x11.75x0.581 inches.

Old Novello Edition, edited by Edward Elgar and Ivor Atkins.