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Bach, J S: St Matthew Passion, BWV244
James Gilchrist (Evangelist), Matthew Rose (Jesus), Ashley Riches (Pilatus), Elizabeth Watts (soprano), Sarah Connolly (alto), Thomas Hobbs (tenor), Christopher Maltman (bass), Richard Egarr (director & harpsichord)
Academy of Ancient Music & Choir of the AAM
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 6th April 2015
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
Singing and playing are highly polished and assured throughout, with James Gilchrist superb as the Evangelist, and Matthew Rose a credible if rather forceful Jesus
Bach, J S: St Matthew Passion, BWV244
James Gilchrist (Evangelist), Matthew Rose (Jesus), Ashley Riches (Pilatus), Elizabeth Watts (soprano), Sarah Connolly (alto), Thomas Hobbs (tenor), Christopher Maltman (bass), Richard Egarr (director & harpsichord)
Academy of Ancient Music & Choir of the AAM
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 6th April 2015
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
Singing and playing are highly polished and assured throughout, with James Gilchrist superb as the Evangelist, and Matthew Rose a credible if rather forceful Jesus
About
In Spring 2015 the Academy of Ancient Music – described as “the finest period-instrument orchestra in the world” by Classic FM – releases a significant new recording of JS Bach St Matthew Passion BWV244, directed from the harpsichord by Richard Egarr.
Performed in the original 1727 version, and with a superlative roster of soloists, this recording is striking in its immediacy, clarity and directness, with numerous insightful and compelling details lost in subsequent versions.
This release – the fourth on AAM Records – follows Birth of the symphony: Handel to Haydn, named BBC Radio 3 “Disc of the Week” and awarded five stars in Classical Music; JS Bach’s St John Passion, which was nominated for a 2014 Gramophone Award for best baroque vocal recording; and JS Bach’s Orchestral Suites, awarded five stars by Fine Music Magazine, and called “exceptional ... a feast of meaningfully understated musicianship” in an Editor’s Choice review in Gramophone magazine.
Supplementary materials available online include preview tracks and videos, as well as a digital booklet featuring session photographs and scholarly notes.
Contents and tracklist
- James Gilchrist, Matthew Rose, Christopher Field, Stuart Jackson, Sarah Connolly, Philip Tebb, Ashley Riches, Richard Latham, Thomas Hobbs, Christopher Maltman, Richard Bannan, Philippa Hyde, Elizabeth Drury
- Academy of Ancient Music Choir, Academy of Ancient Music
- Richard Egarr
- Recorded: 21 April 2014
- Recording Venue: Saint Jude-on-the-Hill, London, UK
Spotlight on this release
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Passion settings by James MacMillan and JS Bach
David listens to two very different musical responses to the Passion story – James MacMillan's new St Luke Passion and the Academy of Ancient Music's performance of Bach's time-honoured St Matthew.
Awards and reviews
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Presto Recording of the Week6th April 2015
-
Presto Recordings of the YearFinalist 2015
June 2015
Singing and playing are highly polished and assured throughout, with James Gilchrist superb as the Evangelist, and Matthew Rose a credible if rather forceful Jesus
4th April 2015
The performance is expert, light on its feet, not dogmatic.
June 2015
[Gilchrist] is a supremely courageous and intelligent reading whose interaction with the human volatility of Matthew Rose's Jesus is profoundly affecting... [Connolly's] 'Erbarme dich' is simply unmissable...[this is a] compellingly original vision of this greatest of all musical tombeaus, with its fresh anticipation founded on collective adrenaline and uniformly outstanding lyrical Bach-singing.
May 2015
[an] expertly sung and played recording of Bach’s great masterpiece.
5th April 2015
it is a fine mainstream reading that makes no pious claims to “authenticity”. Even though none of the soloists is a native German-speaker, their diction is clear, and, in the cases of James Gilchrist’s Evangelist and Sarah Connolly’s mezzo-soprano, the handling of the text is both viscerally emotional and eloquent.
4th April 2015
In common with modern thinking Richard Egarr keeps the pacing keen: the chorales are much less ponderously hymnlike than they can sometimes be in performance...With the mellowness of period instruments and with James Gilchrist giving his naturally inflected, eloquently floated interpretation of the Evangelist, this is a timely release for the Passiontide and Easter season, and a welcome one.
