Bach: Matthäus-Passion

Bach's great choral masterpiece, the St. Matthew Passion, has been at the heart of Rene Jacobs' musical career since he was a child. As a vocalist, first as a boy soprano in Ghent then as a countertenor soloist in adulthood, Jacobs has been steeped in the work's rich tradition (and the historically-informed approaches of several famous musicologist-conductors) for his whole life. In a defining moment that comes at the peak of his musical powers, the great vocalist, conductor and scholar Rene Jacobs leads a cast of superb soloists, backed by the RIAS-Kammerchor and Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, in a recording of the St. Matthew Passion that will doubtless stand as one of the finest made. Offered in surround-sound on Hybrid SACD, this deluxe, audiophile quality set from harmonia mundi (which includes a bonus 'Making of' DVD) does full justice to the remarkable performance by these stellar artists. Jacobs' vision of the work focuses on the paradox of a drama that is at once intimate, theatrical, and collective. As always, there are interpretive surprises, but what will strike listeners most is the recording's searing emotional intensity that is a constant from beginning to end.