Thanks to the medium of the CD, much unknown repertoire has come out of dust again. It must be admitted, however, that many of those discoveries are mainly historically interesting. However, some of these discoveries are breaking through to a wider audience. Like this Johannes Passion by the totally forgotten Georg Gebel Jr., who was a younger contemporary of Bach. The recording of Gebel's Johannes
… Passion even drew so much attention that Jos van Veldhoven and his Netherlands Bach Society were allowed to perform it during a Saturday Matinee. Gebel probably composed the work for a regular Good Friday service in Dresden. At the court of Rudolfstadt, however, the work was also performed as a sort of six-part serial during the Holy Week of 1748. (HJ)more
