Carnegie

Certainly Bach's St. Matthew Passion is the greater of his surviving passions - taken as whole works.  But the St. John Passion is mostly greater minute for minute.  Although greatness, at this level, is nearly absurd: it is as if I said that, taken as a whole, Earth's landmass had greater beauty than its oceans.  But that, by the square meter, the ocean is often more exciting.

Actually, that's exactly what I'm saying: that Bach's Matthew is land; his John is sea.