Review New recording is exceptional in its clarity, the summation of John Eliot Gardiner's experience of the music. --Financial Times, Mar'17 ALBUM OF THE WEEK Having issued the church cantatas for his SDG label, Gardiner has embarked on 'remakes' of Bach's great liturgical works: this Matthew Passion comes from a performance at Pisa Cathedral in 2016 and it marks a radical departure from his account for DG's Archiv. Now, although the choral forces are large by modern standards (28 singers), he eschews big-name soloists for the arias, assigning them, as Bach would have, to his finest choristers. Eleanor Minney's androgynous, unfruity alto is an excellent compromise for Bach's boy singer in the emotional heart of the work, Erbarme dich, while Ashley Riches is excellent in Gerne will ich mich bequemen and Komm susses Kreuz. The gain is that the emphasis on the Passion as a community rite with the chorales implying the presence of a singing congregation and the universal message of the work are underlined. James Gilchrist is an incisive Evangelist, gripping in the passages of drama, and Stephan Loges a noble-toned, idiomatic Christus. Gardiner's Bach remains a lodestar, provided you are not wedded to one-voice-to-a-part minimalism. --Sunday Times, 16 Apr'17 RECORDING OF THE MONTH Sir John Eliot Gardiner's leadership and vision from his use of primarily choir soloists to his conveying of the work s overall journey make for an immensely moving St Matthew Passion. If a Passion has no sense of community it has nothing, and this is surely the making of Gardiner's account. This is a memorable and moving St Matthew, and for all the right reasons. Musically it is very fine. The choir are excellent, of course, with a solid but clear and intimate sound even in the larger choruses, no end of expressive means in the chorales, and a thrilling quickness in the crowd choruses. Gardiner asks for a lot of quiet singing from them and the execute it with superbly controlled beauty. The orchestra is as skilled and musical as you like in their obbligatos, and exquisitely responsive to Gardiner's subtle shaping...The experienced Evangelist of James Gilchist and Christus of Stephen Loges are not to be faulted, and none of the nine young aria soloists is a weak link...you will rarely find the same careful relishing of text, which treats the German words almost as rhythmical and textural sounds in themselves rather than theological pronouncements...What really makes this one special, however, is its emotional integrity, coming not from an affected theatricality but from a pervading air or profound sadness...In his booklet-note Gardiner repeats his assertion that Bach s great skill as an artist lay in his ability to write music with supreme power to console, and it is clear that this is what he has looked for here. That his considerable experience has enabled him to find it in such a thoughtfully moulded, expertly executed and deeply committed reading, so honestly communicative of its intent and so free of self-conscious monumentalism, sententiousness or melodramatics, is why I believe it to be one of his finest achievements. /// he combination of James Gilchrist and Neil Davies as Evangalist and Jesus…is ideal. --Gramophone, April'17/// Choir and Organ, May/June'17