Search - Bach, Koopman, Abo :: St Matthew's Passion (Highlights)

Sentimental education

J. C. Woods | Malden, MA USA | 06/17/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The weakness of an excerption of the St. Matthew's Passion is that it cannot (if it is to fill only one CD) carry the story. It must necessarily stick to the Choruses and arias that comment on the action while forsaking the narration of the events themselves. Since, however, the Choruses and Aria are a white-hot emotional comment on the narrated events, this disadvantage is offset, in a really good CD of excerpts, by immersing the listener in emotional content. In a full version of the Passion, there is time for reflection. The Recitatives of the Evangelist and Jesus carry the story and allow reflection. In a good collection of excerpts there is only one gut-wrenching musical episode after another. Ton Koopman's is not just good, but a wonderful series of emotional vegnettes. From the opening, when one choir asks the other to share in their grief at Jesus' grave, to Jesus' arrest, when the choir demands to know why lightning doesn't strike his captors and Hell not open to swallow them up, to when Judas returns his forty pieces of silver, and the soloist comments You've got your money, give us back our Jesus, or the Chorus singing Jesus' corpse a hushed and heartfelt lullaby; all the way through, Koopman maintains the emotional pressure. Throughout the CD is intense, on the money, and relentless. A masterpiece."