Amazon.co.uk Review
This recording of Bach's
St Matthew Passion is up against tough competition: practically every early music group on the planet has given this work a go. Almost simultaneously with the release of this version, for example, Harmonia Mundi brought out its
Philippe Herreweghe recording with the incomparable Andreas Scholl as the countertenor soloist and a sublime Ian Bostridge as the Evangelist. But the HM recording is not as great as the sum of its parts--which is true of most interpretations of this mammoth work--and, though the soloists are less remarkable, the BIS recording betters it in some ways. The crisp, clear choral singing has a little more drama, such as when the choir bays for Barabbas' freedom, the sparks really fly. And the sound of the Kobe Shoin Women's University Chapel (which was acoustically engineered to be a concert venue) is absolutely beautiful, and manages to be kind without being muddy. The stereo effect--so necessary for the double-choir writing--is also handled with real panache. Gerd Türk is a very fine Evangelist, and under Masaaki Suzuki's sensitive direction holds the enterprise together with an engaging sense of wonder.--
Warwick Thompson
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