Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion is widely recognized as one of the greatest masterpieces in Western sacred music. With its double orchestra and chorus...

Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion is widely recognized as one of the greatest masterpieces in Western sacred music. With its double orchestra and chorus this is a work of enormous proportions in every sense, and Bach was extremely resourceful in treading a fine line between creating the almost operatic spectacle valued by the secular authorities in Leipzig, and the elevated religious atmosphere sought by the clergy. This inspired mix of moving drama and theological discourse led Leonard Bernstein to declare that ‘there is nothing like it in all of music’.