Richter conducts Bach - Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen from St John Passion

Описание: In ‘Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen’ (in No 27) the syncopated, jagged theme—exchanged between the voice-parts—represents the soldiers shaking their dice to divide up Jesus’s clothes.

Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen, sondern darum losen, wes er sein soll.

The turba ‘Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen’ related to another of Mattheson’s objections. In both Bach’s and the anonymous St John Passion the turba chorus is set as a fugue. In question 45 of his ‘Enquiry’ Mattheson asks if for the splitting of the robe it makes sense to write a contrapunto fugato in which one might split and syncopate the notes to everybody’s amazement. His answer is that this chorus is about four soldiers who decide not to split the robe. So it would make no sense to present as tattered something that even these ‘loose knaves’ (‘lose Buben’) left intact. For Mattheson, imitation must convey the sense of the thing represented. Since the soldiers are just talking to each other, he suggests setting their words as a four-part recitative. The following words from Psalm 22 (‘They have parted my clothing among themselves and have cast lots about my robe’) then should be set as a sort of arioso with simple basso continuo. Of particular importance to Mattheson is the question of whether the words of Pilate and Jesus should be set to music in the same manner. Mattheson’s advice is to emphasize Christ’s words by a ‘majestic symphony’. (Though not doing this in his St John Passion, Bach did so later in his St Matthew Passion.)
—Rainer Kleinertz, Bach Reading Mattheson’s Critica Musica: The Second Version (1725) of the St John Passion, Music and Letters, Volume 106, Issue 3, August 2025, Pages 379–380.


Karl Richter
Münchener Bach-Chor
Münchener Bach-Orchester

Tenor [Evangelist, arias, Servant]: Ernst Haefliger; Baritone [Jesus]: Hermann Prey, Soprano [Arias, Maid]: Evelyn Lear; Contralto [Arias]: Hertha Töpper; Bass [Arias, Petrus, Pilatus]: Kieth Engen
Instrumental Soloists: Walter Theurer (German Flute); Edgar Shann/Kurt Hausmann (Oboe I/II, Oboe d'amore, & Oboe da caccia I/II); Valentin Härtel/Kurt Christian Stier (Viola d'amore I/II); Oswald Uhl (Viol); Karl Scheit (Lute)
Continuo: Kurt Engert, Oswald Uhl (Violoncello); Karl Kolbinger, Detlev Kühl (Bassoon); Fritz Ortner (Double-bass; Hedwig Bilgram (Organ)