Album review: René Jacobs, RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie Für Alte Musik, Berlin Bach: Matthäus-Passion (Harmonia Mundi)

 

Andy Gill
Thursday 10 October 2013 18:19 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

René Jacobs could have profited from the surround-sound technique on the Ramon Humet CD. Instead, he's driven to analyse the complex relationships of the bi-choral forces, soloists and accompanists in order to make the stereo image conform as closely as possible to J S Bach's intentions with the Matthäus-Passion. Care is taken to represent the distance between the choirs, along with the parts played and sung from the "swallow's nest gallery". The results are magnificent, particularly the choral blend in "Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen" and "Ich will hier bei dir stehen"; until a 5.1 mix is attempted, this will surely be the spatially definitive version.

Download: Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen; Ich will hier bei dir stehen

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in