Bach: St John Passion

Dunedin Consort/John ButtLinn Records CKD 419

Bach St John Passion
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Artist: Johann Sebastian Bach, Dunedin Consort, University of Glasgow Chapel Choir, Nicholas Mulroy, Joanne Lunn, Clare Wilkinson, Robert Davies, Matthew Brook, John Butt
Genre: Classical
Label: Linn Records

This St John Passion is miles away from the sort of performance being given by the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and NSO this afternoon. John Butt presents a reconstruction of the Passion liturgy as Bach would have known it, so there are organ pieces, congregational chorales (involving the University of Glasgow Chapel Choir), as well as other additions – and for the full experience you can even download a sermon and intercession for free from url.ie/h4xd. With a team of soloists and a main choir that come to less than a dozen voices in all, and an orchestra on a scale to match, the performance is nimble on its feet, expressively light in the choral numbers, with heavier expressive traction in recitatives and solos.

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor