Classics of the Phonograph

St. Matthew Passion

 
Fair copy in Bach's own hand of the revised version of the St Matthew Passion BWV 244 that is generally dated to the year 1743–46

Fair copy in Bach's own hand of the revised version of the St Matthew Passion BWV 244 that is generally dated to the year 1743–46 By Johann Sebastian Bach - http://www.npj.com/homepage/teritowe/jsbhand.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14286992

Performances of Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" are always special occasions, and due to the length of this mighty work and the size of the forces involved, recordings before the LP era were rare.

On this week's Classics of the Phonograph, Saturday at 11 am on WILL-FM, we will hear excerpts from historic performances of this work, involving conductors such as Serge Koussevitzky and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and famous soloists such as Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and Kathleen Ferrier.