St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach at Carus

The St John Passion is one of the great vocal works from Bach’s Leipzig years. However, in contrast to the other oratorios, Bach never settled upon a final version of this composition; he made numerous changes to the work for each successive performance. All previous editions have conflated the readings from the multiple layers of different sources. Yet now, for the first time, the Carus editions have made the second (1725) and fourth (1749) versions of the work accessible and able to be performed as they were heard under Bach's own direction.

Traditional version 1739/1749

Bach probably began to compile a clean copy of the score of the St John Passion in 1739. But after just ten movements he abandoned the project; the score was not completed until years later by one of his copyists, under Bach’s supervision but with only a few edits by Bach himself.  

The score and performance materials of the 1749 version include the variant beginning of this edition, which has become the traditional and most often performed version of the St John Passion since its first publication in 1830. The piano reduction and choral score can also be bought separately (Carus 31.245/93).

Version I, 1724 (cannot be reconstructed)

This version, which is similar to Version IV, cannot be reconstructed. The first version contains an interesting variant in the instrumentation of movements 19 and 20 with viola d’amore and lute, which can be performed with additional performance material (Carus 31.245/81 and Carus 31.245/82).

Version II, 1725

This version deviates the most from the later, familiar version and sets the St John Passion in the choral cantata cycle of that year (Carus 31.245/50).

Version III, 1732

The changes made in this version have been largely lost.

Version IV (1749) + Traditional Version 

The 1749 version corresponds largely to the first version and then from the 11th movement onwards to the traditional, frequently performed version, although with some clear textual changes and differences in orchestration parts. The score and performance materials of this version enable the performance of both the 1749 version and also the traditional version of 1739/49 (Carus 31.245).