And Bostridge is well-served by Europa Galante's light and deft ensemble playing. This was never going to be a poor record, but they raise it above the realms of the ordinarily good. If the religious feelings expressed in the original pietist texts are not shared by the players, they produce a marvellous simulation: the whole performance has the intensity of religious experience.

Perhaps, after all the celebrations of this year, the last thing people want to hear is more Bach; but anyone who loves music should buy this record.

A review of this recital in a Sunday newspaper was phrased in such extravagant terms of praise that I noted it as something to acquire. I am relieved to calculate that this review can only have been five years ago, so long does it seem that I have been failing to do anything about it, but the name of Ian Bostridge registered firmly with me, and I now own the disc with a good idea, obtained in the intervening period, of why the original reviewer was so impressed. Bostridge is not only highly accomplished, he has an exceptional voice in the first place. It is what I think of as a 'true' tenor, as opposed to the 'mezzo-tenor' timbre of Schreier or Padmore. In spite of this Bostridge has a quite remarkable low register, something that he needs frequently in Bach and nowhere more on this disc than in Ich Habe Genug, where he adapts the soprano version and shows his self-assurance by leading off with it. There is more than an hour's music here, it is all music of much the same type, but between composer and interpreters the experience was over in no time. Bostridge seems to me to hit the right expression in every piece without exception, and he is admirably offset by the Europa Galante group, not just the instrumentalists but also the three singers who perform the final chorale in Ich Armer Mensch.

In addition to the arias, recitatives and the one chorus, there are three short instrumental numbers, the disc being rounded off with a sinfonia from the Peasant Cantata, providing an unexpected and pleasant contrast to the unrelieved devoutness of the rest of it. The recorded tone is admirable, and the liner-note is of real value. Apart from anything else, the translation by Hugh Graham puts his fellow practitioners to shame. If you read the note in English without realising it is a translation, as I did, you would never know, or at least I never suspected.

I suppose it is slightly unusual for a young artist to introduce himself with an exhibition disc consisting entirely of music that is not only great but deeply serious and even solemn as well. However one of the most extraordinary things about Bach is just how strong his appeal has always been and always looks like being. The technical difficulty of his music that once seemed formidable seems so no longer, and in some ways he is easier to interpret successfully than most composers of similar stature. That does not detract in the slightest from what Bostridge has achieved here, and I would suggest that admirers of both great music and great singing would do well to be less dilatory about obtaining this disc than I was.