St. John Passion

Bach’s St. John Passion is not the first oratorio he wrote but it is his earliest such work to survive. He composed it just after his 39th birthday, for a vesper service on Good Friday, while he was director of church music in Leipzig. It premiered on April 7, 1724, three years before St. Matthew, his only other surviving Passion (of the five he wrote) was performed, also on a Good Friday in Leipzig.