Juozas Rimas Jr (not the one playing) asks:

>So far I have listened only to two parts of this huge work (St. Matthew's
>Passion) and would like to ask you: which parts have made the biggest
>impression to you?

There's a moment at the recitatives that always strikes me: that one in
which the tortured Jesus cries:

   "Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?"

Immediately (following the biblical text) the evangelist "translates" this
cry:

   "Mein Gott, mein Gott, warum hast du mich verlassen?"

Bach simply writes here the same melody, in other key.

I've always wondered why this impresses me so much every time I hear it.
Perhaps this simple resource is a major example of musical "sympatheia"
("to suffer with"): the Evangelist wants to translate the words of Jesus,
but doing this, he also emulates his affection (affetto)....  Imitatio
Christi, after all?.  Whatever the answer may be, I find this attempt of
imitation deeply moving.

Pablo Massa
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