Remaining faithful to their tradition of making live recordings during the course of their concert tours, Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra of the 18th Century now present Bach's Easter Oratorio from spring last year. With Ilse Eerens, Michael Chance, Markus Schäfer and David Wilson-Johnson as the vocal soloists, and with the faithful Cappella Amsterdam responsible for the choruses, Brüggen and his legendary ensemble once again demonstrate why they have been – and continue to be – one of the pillars of the historically informed performance movement, which has so radically changed the way of hearing music composed before 1800.

On the other hand, Brüggen has never championed the one voice-per-part practice – which reduces choral interventions to their minimum form of expression; for which his version of the Easter Oratorio, like with his recent recordings of the Mass in B minor and the St John Passion, provides a set of contrasts in tone colours highlighting the essential beauty of the composition.