Matthäus-Passion BWV 244

Nowadays, Bach is an integral part of music, but in the 1820s his music was known only as a study book for students of counterpoint. After 1829, Mendelssohn frequently returned to Bach's music and he performed the Passion again in Leipzig in 1841. Now, in the era of Romanticism, with a symphonic orchestra and choir, he redesigned both the role of the Evangelist and that of the soloists and shortened the Passion by approximately 30% of its length. After his death in 1847, Mendelssohn's "edition" of the Passion lay dormant with his heirs in London; his grandson eventually bequeathed it to the Bodleian Library in Oxford. A first complete reconstruction of Mendelssohn's material by Malcolm Bruno and Caroline Ritchie will be published in December 2023 by Bärenreiter, and the first recording by the Bach Choir of Bethlehem will be released in March 2024 on the Analekta label.