At the fourth concert of our series “Music from Wolfenbüttel Castle” in 2019, the St. Matthew Passion Das Leiden und Sterben unseres Herrn Jesu Christi was performed and recorded. After the death of Johann Rosenmüller the Wolfenbüttel court selected a new chapel master in 1684: Johann Theile, who in the view of Duke Anton Ulrich and his musical advisors had always been a very well-qualified candidate. It is to be assumed that Theile’s experience in the field of the opera recommended him for the post of court music director in Wolfenbüttel – after all, during his tenure, which lasted from 1685 to 1689, a court opera theater was established at Wolfenbüttel Castle, where works by Lully and Italian composers were performed. The multifaceted richness of Theile’s compositional artistry is reflected in special measure in his St. Matthew Passion published in Lübeck in 1673. In it elements of the traditional church style are combined with progressive techniques of dramatic narration and meditative reflection in song.