Pilatus

George Frederick Handel (1685-1759), one of the preeminent Baroque composers, was born in Germany, educated in Italy, and spent most of his career in England, making him one of the first genuinely cosmopolitan composers noted, for the elegance, sophistication, and tunefulness of his music. He established his reputation in London as a composer of Italian opera, but after public taste shifted in the 1730s, he turned to English oratorios, the most famous of which is Messiah. Other popular works include Water Music, Royal Fireworks Music, the operas Giulio Cesare and Serse, and the oratorios Israel in Egypt and Judas Maccabeus.

St John’s Passion is a newly discovered masterpiece of the Italian baroque. The autograph manuscript is in the Biblioteca dei Filippini in Naples. The Evangelist is a countertenor and Jesus and Pilate are tenors. The choir is the crowd and the accompaniment is a string quartet. An Italian harpsichord and an organo di legno have been used for the basso continuo and they are joined by a harp.

Bach revised his Johannes-Passion regularly: he returned to it over a period of twenty-six years, from 1724 to his death. It is the version hallowed by tradition, established by the Kantor a year before his death, that is presented on these CDs. But the 1725 version, equally outstanding musically, has also been recorded complete and can be downloaded as a bonus in high-resolution sound. Comparison of the two versions reveals the underlying meaning of this matchless Passion.