Neue Ausgabe Samtlicher Werke Johann Sebastian Bach Serie II Messen Passionen oratorische Werke Band 4 Johannes-Passion BWV 245

The Neue Bach-Ausgabe, or New Bach Edition, was initiated in the mid-20th century as a collaborative, scholarly project by the Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Institut Göttingen and the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. Published by Bärenreiter, the series was designed to provide a definitive, critical collection of Johann Sebastian Bach's compositions based on primary sources, replacing the outdated 19th-century Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe. This specific volume, dedicated to the St. John Passion (BWV 245), represents the rigorous editorial standards established to reconcile the disparate surviving manuscripts and early editions of Bach’s major choral works.

The volume was meticulously edited by Arthur Mendel, a prominent American musicologist who brought a modern analytical approach to Bach's notation and performance practice. His editorial design prioritized clarity and historical fidelity, aiming to provide performers and scholars with a clean, scholarly text that stripped away generations of editorial accretion. Since its release in the 1970s, this volume has become a cornerstone of both academic study and professional performance, widely recognized for its contribution to the historically informed performance movement.