About this edition
Composed for Good Friday 1724 at Leipzig's Nikolaikirche, the Johannespassion (St. John Passion), BWV 245, is Bach's first surviving setting of the Passion story and one of the most dramatically urgent works in the choral repertoire. Drawing on the Gospel of John, Bach builds a taut, theologically charged narrative punctuated by ferocious turba choruses, aching chorales, and arias of extraordinary emotional depth — a work that continues to be performed every Holy Week around the world nearly three centuries after its premiere.
This edition reproduces Band 12.1 of the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe, the monumental collected edition of Bach's works issued by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig beginning in 1851. Published in 1863 and edited by the distinguished Bach scholar Wilhelm Rust (1822–1892), who later served as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, this volume represents one of the earliest serious attempts to establish a critical, scholarly text of the Johannespassion from Bach's autograph and original performing parts. The Bach-Gesellschaft edition remains a cornerstone of Bach scholarship, and Rust's editorial work on the Passions is still consulted and cited by musicologists today.
- Format: Full orchestral score
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- Source: Reproduced from a public domain historical edition
- Publisher: Purple 4R Publishing
Because this historical score has passed into the public domain, we're able to bring Rust's 1863 Bach-Gesellschaft edition back into print in a clean, readable format — putting a landmark of Bach scholarship directly into the hands of conductors, performers, and students who want to study or perform this masterpiece.
