St John Passion

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J. S. BACH
St John Passion
Joanne Lunn, Clare Wilkinson, Nicholas Mulroy, Matthew Brook / Dunedin Consort and Players, John Butt

[ Linn Records SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD ]

Release Date: Wednesday 20 March 2013

This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.

This is the premiere recording J.S. Bach's John Passion heard for the first time within its original liturgical context.

This recording marks the return of Dunedin Consort's star studded cast including, Nicholas Mulroy, Matthew Brook, Robert Davies, Joanne Lunn and Clare Wilkinson.

Director John Butt has given listeners an interpretation that will provide a refreshing outlook on this masterpiece and will show the John Passion in a completely new light.

The Consort recreate the context of a passion performance during Bach's time at Leipzig; the University of Glasgow Chapel Choir (directed by James Grossmith) and a congregational choir of amateur singers perform motets and chorales from an original Leipzig hymn book and John Butt takes centre stage to perform organ preludes on the Collins organ at Greyfriar's Kirk in Edinburgh, where the recording took place.

'No performance could better justify small-scale Bach than this convincing marriage of scholarship and inspiration.' BBC Music Magazine (on J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor)

'The playing and the singing is outstanding, undoubtedly enhanced by John Butt's scholarly and revelatory handling of the score.' The Observer (on J.S. Bach: Matthew Passion)

The Dunedin Consort has established a reputation as the finest single-part period performance choir currently performing, under the direction of prize-winning Bach specialist John Butt O.B.E.

The multi-award-winning Dunedin Consort has won praise for the natural style of its soloists and renown for the virtuosity of its singers.

"naturalness and emotional honesty are what emerge from this tight-knit and perfectly paced ensemble Passion, in which Bach's complex succession of recitatives, arias, choruses and chorales has surely seldom sounded so convincingly of a piece...[the singers] come across as a gathering of real people rather than a disembodied chorus. The fact that you can sometimes recognise a soloist's voice within the mix only adds to the impression of reality."
GRAMOPHONE AWARD FINALIST 2013: Baroque Vocal

"a dramatic, exactingly nuanced, profoundly considered reading, compelling in its integrity and text-driven immediacy...Mulroy's firmly-contoured Evangelist balances the musical and narrative imperatives of the recitatives with judicious sensitivity...Brooks's Christus stands up to the crowd with a dignified yet firm resolve and hallowed charisma..Butt's contextualising demands to be heard: it's nothing short of a revelation" (BBC Music)

"Not only is this an exceptionally fine small-scale performance and recording with scholarly but readable notes, it attempts to bring us closer to the way in which the original listeners experienced the passion on Good Friday" (MusicWeb)