Bach : La Passion selon saint Jean. Gilchrist, Rose, Purves, Egarr.

   in Choir & Organ (Mar, 2014)
Bach’s original 1724 score is a revelation: stripped of much of the delicious decoration of his later versions, it startles with the immediacy Making a venerable masterwork new: the Choir of the AAM of its message. Richard Egarr and his virtuosic, chamber-sized forces surely bring us as near as we might get to the intimate atmosphere of the first performance, wrapped in recorded sound of the utmost freshness, clarity and presence. Soloists and chorus own the drama with an arresting, spiritually challenging intensity and the playing of the AAM is faultless and impassioned in equal measure: here is truly a venerable masterwork made new. …