A Passion for Bach

Synopsis

In 1723, the Leipzig Town Council appointed Johann Sebastian Bach as the new Kantor of St. Thomas Church. Despite what Bach might have felt about the workload, he apparently did like the Church: it was there that his family worshipped and 12 of his 20 children were baptized.

But Bach was responsible for music at two Leipzig churches: St. Thomas and St. Nikolaus Church.

In Bach’s day, St. Thomas was regarded as the lesser of the two, with St. Nikolaus Church the official venue for most important occasions, including the premiere performances of many of Bach’s sacred works. For example, it was at St. Nikolaus Church on today’s date in 1724 that Bach’s Passion According to Saint John was premiered.

Bach apparently intended his new Passion to be performed at St. Thomas Church, ignoring the Council’s specific request for the other venue, and changed his plans only after the Council authorized more space for performers in the choir loft at St. Nikolaus — and after they repaired that church’s harpsichord.

Chalk up one victory for the cagey cantor!

Alas, Bach’s tussles with the Council didn’t end there. While posterity regards Bach’s years in Leipzig as one of the most glorious epochs in music history, it’s quite likely that both Bach and his employers might have recalled it as one long battle of wills over matters large and small.

Music Played in Today's Program

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): St. John Passion; Collegium Vocale; Philippe Herreweghe, conductor; Harmonia Mundi 90.1748/49

On This Day

Births

• 1726 - British composer, music journalist and historian Charles Burney, in Shrewsbury This date is according to the Julian “Old Style” calendar still in use in England that year. Under the Gregorian “New Style” calendar, this date would be April 18.

• 1763 - Italian composer and double-bass virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti, in Venice

• 1899 - French composer and pianist Robert Casadesus, in Paris

• 1920 - Indian composer and sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, in Benares

Deaths

• 1783 - German composer Ignaz Holzbauer, 71, in Mannheim

Premieres

• 1713 - Handel: Utrecht Te Deum, at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London (Gregorian date: April 18)

• 1724 - Bach: St. John Passion performed on Good Friday at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig

• 1745 - Handel: oratorio Belshazzar (Julian date: March 27)

• 1805 - first public performance of Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, with composer conducting; This symphony had been performed at least twice at private concerts arranged in late 1804 and early 1805

• 1923 - Hahn: operetta Ciboulette, in Paris at the Théâtre des Variétés

• 1928 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 10, in Moscow

• 1965 - Henze: opera Der Junge Lord (The Young Lord), in West Berlin at the Deutsche Oper

• 1994 - John Harbison: Cello Concerto, in Boston, with Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa conducting

• 2005 - Augusta Read Thomas: Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour for mezzo-soprano, tenor and chamber ensemble, at the Columbia University’s Miller Theater in New York City

Others

• 1863 - American premiere of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Theodore Thomas conducting

• 1918 - The German conductor of the Boston Symphony, Karl Muck, is arrested and interned as an enemy alien after American enters World War I