St Matthew Passion Cuts

For choir members looking to get ahead of the game, the list of proposed cuts, (Jenkins ed) is as follows:

2-12 inclusive.

21

29 – cut da capo.  Sing through to fine first time and stop.

37, last bar and 4 notes cut,  plus whole of 38.  (Run end of 37 straight into 39 without break.)

52 cut bars 1-15

55

60,61

63 cut one verse (can’t decide which, yet!)

64 cut from bar 6 to 67 bar 1.

69

73 cut from bar 21 to bar 30.

76 cut from bar 8 until end of 76.

At fast Baroque speeds, the whole work would take the best part of 160 minutes plus intervals; these cuts aim to bring that down by 40 minutes, and then we can afford to relax the tempi on a few occasions...!