J. S. Bach | Picander: Passion Oratorio

The renowned Belgian ensemble Il Gardellino and the harpsichordist and Bach scholar Alexander Grychtolik

presented a “new” Bach Passion at the Thüringer Bachwochen 2025: the Passion Oratorio. This Passion Oratorio

(BWV Anh. 169), preserved only as a text by Bach’s most important poet, Picander, is likely an abandoned Passion

project by the Thomaskantor from the year 1725 and celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2025. In contrast to Bach’s

surviving Passions, it is a lyrical, less dramatic work that places human empathy for Christ’s suffering at its center—

an important message for our own time as well.

As an artistic experiment, Alexander Grychtolik has reconstructed the Passion Oratorio and completed it as a pasticcio.

This world’s first video recording of the Passion Oratorio took place at the Stadtkirche St. Georg in Schmalkaden, Thuringia, Germany.