St Matthew Passion discography

Recordings of the St Matthew Passion are shown as a sortable table of selected notable recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion.

The selection is taken from the 253 recordings listed on bach-cantatas as of 2015, beginning with a recording from 1939 by a symphony orchestra and choir to match. Beginning in the late 1960s, historically informed performances paved the way for recordings with smaller groups, boys choirs and ensembles playing period instruments, taken to an extreme in recordings using only one voice on a vocal part.

History

The work was first recorded by symphonic choirs and orchestras. From the late 1960s, historically informed performances (HIP) tried to adhere more to the sounds of the composer's lifetime, who typically wrote for boys choirs and for comparatively small orchestras of Baroque instruments, often now called "period instruments". Some scholars believe that Bach used only one singer for a vocal part in the choral movements, termed "one voice per part" (OVPP). On some of these recordings, the solo singer is reinforced in choral movements with a larger orchestra by a ripieno singer (OVPP+R).

The first recording of the work was conducted by David McKinley Williams with the choir of St. Bartholomew, New York in 1930, but was not complete. Serge Koussevitzky conducted a performance on Good Friday 1937, sung in English. The table begins with the recording conducted by Willem Mengelberg in 1939. In 1970 the first HIP recording appeared, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The first OVPP recording appeared in 2003, conducted by Paul McCreesh.

Table of selected recordings

The sortable listing is taken mostly from the selection provided by Aryeh Oron on the Bach-Cantatas website.

The information lists for one recording typically:

• Conductor / choir / orchestra, often several choirs
• Soloists in the order Evangelist (tenor), Vox Christi (Voice of Jesus, bass), soprano, alto, tenor (if the tenor arias are performed by a different tenor than the evangelist), bass. Sometimes the soloists are different for Choir I and II.
• Label
• Year of the recording
• Choir type
• Choir type
  1. Large choirs (red background): Bach (choir dedicated to Bach's music, founded in the mid of the 20th century), Boys (choir of all male voices), Radio (choir of a broadcaster), Symphony (choir related to a symphony orchestra)
  2. Medium-size choirs, such as Chamber choir, Chorale (choir dedicated mostly to church music), Madrigal
  3. One voice per part (green background): OVPP or OVPP+R (with ripienists reinforcing the soloists in some chorale movements)
• Orch. type (orchestra type)
  1. Large orchestras (red background): Large (unspecified), Bach (orchestra dedicated to Bach's music, founded in the mid of the 20th century), Radio (symphony orchestra of a broadcaster), Opera, Symphony
  2. Chamber orchestra
  3. Orchestra on period instruments (green background)
• Comments

References

External links

• Libretto with English translation
• St. Matthew Passion Commentary, musical examples, list of recordings on the website bach-cantatas
• Side-by-side arrangement of the original text and an English translation
• Matthäuspassion: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Matthäuspassion, early edition (BWV 244b): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project