Bach: Markus Passion, BWV 247 Jordi Savall

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Markus Passion, BWV 247:
• 1 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Geh, Jesu, geh zu deiner Pein!" (aus BWV 198) 05:23
• 2 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Und nach zween Tagen war Ostern" (aus BWV 244) 00:23
• 3 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Ja nicht auf das Fest" (aus BWV 244) 00:10
• 4 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Und da er zu Bethanien war" 00:35
• 5 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Was soll doch dieser Unrat?" (aus BWV 244) 00:27
• 6 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Sie stellen uns wie Ketzern nach" (aus BWV 258) 00:49
• 7 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Jesus) "Und murreten über sie" (aus BWV 244) 02:20
• 8 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Mir hat die Welt trüglich gericht’" (aus BWV 244) 00:43
• 9 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Und am ersten Tage der süssen Brote" (aus BWV 244) 00:15
• 10 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Wo willst du, daß wir hingehen" (aus BWV 244) 00:20
• 11 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Jesus) "Und er sandte seiner Jünger zween" (aus BWV 244) 02:10
• 12 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Bin ich's?" (aus BWV 244) 00:07
• 13 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Judas) "Und der andere" 00:10
• 14 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Ich, ich und meine Sünden" (aus BWV 245) 00:46
• 15 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Jesus) "Er antwortete, und sprach zu ihnen" (aus BWV 244) 02:45
• 16 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Aria (Alto) "Mein Heiland, dich vergeß ich nicht Ode Funèbre" (aus BWV 198) 07:00
• 17 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Jesus) "Und da sie den Lobgesang gesprochen hatten" (aus BWV 244) 01:00
• 18 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Wach auf, o Mensch, vom Sündenschlaf" (aus BWV 20/7) 00:58
• 19 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Jesus, Pierre) "Petrus aber saget zu ihm" (aus BWV 244) 01:01
• 20 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Aria (Tenore) "Ich lasse dich, mein Jesus, nicht Passion selon saint Jean" (aus BWV 245) 04:37
• 21 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Jesus) "Desselben gleichen sagten sie alle" (aus BWV 244) 01:27
• 22 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Betrübtes Herz sei wohlgemut" (aus BWV 429) 01:01
• 23 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Jesus) "Und ging ein wenig fürbaß" (aus BWV 244) 00:58
• 24 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Machs mit mir Gott, nach deiner Güt" (aus BWV 245) 00:48
• 25 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Jesus) "Und kam, und fand sie schlafend" (aus BWV 244) 02:13
• 26 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Aria (Soprano) "Er kommt, er ist vorhanden!" (aus BWV 198) 03:08
• 27 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Judas) "Und alsbald, da er noch redete" (aus BWV 244) 00:59
• 28 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Aria (Alto) "Falsche Welt, dein schmeichelnd Küssen" (aus BWV 54 06:23
• 29 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Jesus) "Die aber legten ihre Hände an ihn" (aus BWV 244) 01:12
• 30 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Jesu, ohne Missetat, im Garten vorhanden" (aus BWV 245) 01:03
• 31 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Und die Jünger verliessen ihn alle, und flohen" 00:34
• 32 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Ich will hier bei dir stehen" (aus BWV 135) 05:21
• 33 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Aria (Tenore) "Mein Tröster ist nicht mehr bei mir" (aus BWV 198) 04:41
• 34 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Und sie führeten Jesum zu dem Hohenpriester" (aus BWV 244) 01:09
• 35 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Testis) "Wir haben gehöret, daß er sagete" (aus BWV 244) 00:33
• 36 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Aber ihr Zeugnis stimmete noch nicht überein" 00:09
• 37 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Was Menschen Kraft und Witz anfäht" (aus BWV 258) 00:52
• 38 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Pontifex) "Und der Hohepriester stund auf unter sie" (aus BWV 244) 00:37
• 39 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Befiehl du deine Wege" (aus BWV 244) 01:07
• 40 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Pontifex, Jesus) "Da fragte ihn der Hohepriester abermal" (aus BWV 244) 01:17
• 41 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Weissage uns" (aus BWV 244) 00:32
• 42 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Und die Knechte schlugen ihn ins Angesicht 00:08
• 43 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Du edles Angesichte" (aus BWV 244) 01:02
• 44 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Ancilla, Petrus) "Und Petrus war danieden im Pallast" (aus BWV 244) 01:12
• 45 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Wahrlich, du bist der einer" (aus BWV 244) 00:11
• 46 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Petrus) "Er aber fing an" 01:00
• 47 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Herr, ich habe mißgehandelt" (aus BWV 331) 01:01
• 48 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Jesus, Pilatus) "Und bald am Morgen" (aus BWV 244) 01:34
• 49 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Aria (Alto) "Will ich doch gar gerne schweigen" (aus BWV 173) 01:36
• 50 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Pilatus) "Er pflegte aber, ihnen auf das Osterfest" (aus BWV 244) 01:33
• 51 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Kreuzige ihn!" (aus BWV 245) 00:56
• 52 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Pilatus) "Pilatus aber sprach zu ihnen" 00:12
• 53 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Kreuzige ihn!" (II) [aus BWV 245] 01:00
• 54 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Aria (Soprano) "Angenehmes Mordgeschrei!" (aus BWV 171) 04:42
• 55 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Pilatus aber gedachte dem Volk genug zu tun" (aus BWV 244) 00:49
• 56 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Gegrüsset seist du, der Jüden König!" (aus BWV 244) 00:16
• 57 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Und schlugen ihm das Haupt mit dem Rohr" 00:18
• 58 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Man hat dich sehr hart verhöhnet" (aus BWV 353) 01:06
• 59 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Und da sie ihn verspottet hatten" (aus BWV 244) 01:40
• 60 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Das Wort sie sollen lassen stahn" (aus BWV 80) 01:10
• 61 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Und es war um die dritte Stunde" (aus BWV 244) 00:55
• 62 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Pfui dich, wie fein zerbrichst du den Tempel" (aus BWV 248) 00:38
• 63 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Desselben gleichen die Hohenpriester" (aus BWV 244) 00:09
• 64 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Er hat andern geholfen" (aus BWV 198) 01:38
• 65 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Jesus) "Und die mit ihm gekreuziget waren" (aus BWV 244) 01:27
• 66 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Keinen hat Gott verlassen" (aus BWV 369) 01:03
• 67 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Und etliche, die dabei stunden" (aus BWV 244) 00:05
• 68 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Siehe, er rufet dem Elias" (aus BWV 244) 00:05
• 69 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Miles) "Da lief einer, und füllete einen Schwamm mit Essig" (aus BWV 244) 00:49
• 70 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Aria (Tenore), Choral (Soprano) "Welt und Himmel, nehmt zu Ohren / Jesu, deine Passion" (aus BWV 245) 03:50
• 71 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista, Centurio) "Und der Vorhang im Tempel zerriß in zwei Stück" (aus BWV 244) 02:28
• 72 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Choral "Oh! Jesu du, mein Hilf und Ruh!" (aus BWV 404) 00:43
• 73 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Recitativo (Evangelista) "Und er kaufte ein Leinwand" 00:54
• 74 Markus Passion, BWV 247: Chor "Bei deinem Grab und Leichenstein" (aus BWV 198) 05:43
• Total Runtime 01:49:56

Info for Bach: Markus Passion, BWV 247

Created in Leipzig in March 1731 and then revised for the Holy Week of 1744, on a text by Christian Friedrich Henrici, aka Picander, the St Mark Passion was composed by Bach using existing works.

The autograph score is lost but recent musicological research shows that some pieces like the Funeral Ode BWV 198 or an aria from the cantata BWV 54 had been recycled.

Every performance is thus a reconstruction by the performing artist. Jordi Savall offers his own vision, made of subtle chiaroscuro, suffused with serenity and meditation.

"After the scholars have put their pens down, the crucial question is of course whether the result is a musically satisfying response to the text. Could there ever be any doubt? Savall is no dusty academic disconnected from musical reality; he knows exactly what he’s doing, building thoughtfully on others’ work to create something coherent and convincing, and his team of musicians communicate his intention magnificently." (Davide Smith)

David Szigetvari, tenor
Marta Matheu, soprano
Raffaele Pe, countertenor
Reinoud van Mechelen, tenor
Konstantin Wolff, bass
La Capella Reial de Catalunya
Le Concert des Nations
Jordi Savall, conductor

Jordi Savall
Born on August 1, 1941, in Igualada, near Barcelona, Spain; married Montserrat Figueras (a musician), 1968. Education: Barcelona Conservatory, diploma; Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, diploma, 1970. Addresses: Record company---Naive Classique, 148 rue du Faubourg Possinière, 75010 Paris, France.

The works performed by Catalan gambist and conductor Jordi Savall span several centuries---from the music of Alfonso el Sabio, king of Castile and Léon, to the works of J. S. Bach---bringing to life the splendor and passion of bygone eras. A performance by Savall is more than a musical experience: the extraordinary power and beauty of his playing magically removes the listener from the flux of time, creating a space in which such obstacles to enjoyment as historical distance, stylistic peculiarities, and idiomatic enigmas simply disappear. For example, historical periods, including the Baroque, have often been described as "distant." Indeed, the physical and mental universe of seventeenth-century France may seem distant to a person living in the twenty-first century. But that distance vanishes when Savall plays the music of the great French master of the bass viol, Marin Marais.

First of all, Savall's main instrument is the viola da gamba, or bass viol (he also plays the smaller viols), not as a quaint relic that needs some special justification or antiquarian explanation. True, in the late 1700s, the viola da gamba---which is not a different kind of cello, but a member of the viol family, a distinct group of instruments of varying sizes---was supplanted by the cello, as the latter instrument, with its potential for virtuosity, satisfied the requirements of changing musical styles. However, to Savall, his instrument is irreplaceable. In fact, according to Savall, the viola da gamba has a particular sonic richness that the more "modern" cello lacks. As Savall explained to Chris Pasles of the Los Angeles Times, the "viola da gamba is totally different from a cello. It's closer to the lute---a lute with a bow, in fact. With six strings, frets like a guitar, a softer sound, it's more rich in different colors." Instead of merely reproducing a particular musical composition, Savall captures and expresses the timeless humanity of the music, illuminating the particular composition as a universally comprehensible document of the human experience. A case in point is Savall's mesmerizing performance of Marais's musical description, found in Book V of his Pièces de viole, of his gallstone operation. Written under the influence of François Couperin's character pieces, this extraordinary composition, especially in Savall's version, remains one of the most suggestively dramatic works of Baroque music.

Born in 1941, near the Catalan city of Barcelona, Savall began his musical education at the age of six. After graduation from the Barcelona Conservatory, where he studied the cello, Savall went to Basel, Switzerland, where he studied the viola da gamba with August Wenzinger at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, receiving a diploma in 1970. His other teachers included Wieland Kuijken, in Brussels. In 1973 Savall took over Wenzinger's post at the Schola Cantorum. By the early 1970s, Savall was already considered one the greatest viola da gamba players. In addition, he worked hard to enrich his instrument's repertoire, rescuing many works from oblivion and performing and recording numerous forgotten compositions. Savall thus exemplified, as he still does, the learned performer, who constantly studies the vast field of old music, bringing many neglected compositions to light. Among these lesser-known compositions are works by Marais, whose rich and fascinating oeuvre includes more than 500 pieces for viola da gamba and keyboard accompaniment, assembled in five books of his Pièces de viole.

In 1974 Savall and his wife, soprano Montserrat Figueras, founded Hespèrion XX---later, in the twenty-first century, known as Hespèrion XXI---an international ensemble that has gained great acclaim for its extraordinary performances of music from the Middle Ages to the Baroque. In 1987, returning to his native city after his extensive sojourn in foreign lands, Savall formed the Capella Reial de Catalunya, a vocal group that, under his direction, has performed and recorded music by Tomáa Luis de Victoria, Francisco Guerrero, and Claudio Monteverdi.

In 1989, further expanding his repertoire and musical activities, Savall founded the Concert des Nations, an ensemble consisting of younger musicians from Spain and Latin America. Under Savall's direction, this orchestra, which plays on period instruments, has recorded a variety of works from the Baroque and Classical periods.

Savall's career received a tremendous boost when film director Alain Corneau asked him to play on the soundtrack for Tous les matins du monde, his 1992 film about Marais and his teacher, Sainte-Colombe. Based on Pascal Quignard's admirable 1991 novel--available in English as All the World's Mornings--which imagines the life of the mysterious Sieur de Sainte-Colombe, the film is a spell-binding portrait of seventeenth-century France with the music, performed by Savall, providing a foundation for the narrative. Savall himself indirectly inspired Quignard's novel: it was a 1976 recording by Savall that introduced the writer to Sainte-Colombe's music. The music that Savall performs on the soundtrack is mostly by Marais and Sainte-Colombe, though it also includes a segment of François Couperin's deeply spiritual Leçons des ténèbres. Savall is inspired in his performance of the heartrending Tombeau les regrets, which, in Quignard's imagination, Sainte-Colombe played to conjure up the spirit of his deceased wife. In Savall's hands, this music, which appears as a leitmotif throughout the film, graces the rich tapestry of the film as a mysterious aura.

In 1988 the French Ministry of Culture awarded Savall the title of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres. His recordings, numbering more than one hundred, have received many awards, including the Double Disc of Gold and the Diapason d'Or. In 1997 Savall's recording company, Astrée, founded a separate label, Fontalis, for his recordings. The following year, Savall started his own label, Alia Vox, which later reissued many of his earlier recordings at an affordable price. Savall's remarkable career is more than a personal triumph: thanks to his superb musicianship, the viola de gamba has emerged from the shadows of the past, becoming the instrument of choice for many younger performers. For such performers, the rich repertoire of the Renaissance and Baroque offers not only infinite artistic challenges and possibilities but the opportunity to abolish the somewhat artificial barrier separating "early" music from the rest of the musical tradition. (Zoran Minderovic)

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