Werner Güra reviews
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 'Choral' (Pittsburgh/Honeck)
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck, et al (Reference)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9; Choral Fantasy
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra/Pablo Heras-Casado et al (Harmonia Mundi)
JS Bach: Cantata BWV 105; Schumann: Ballade vom Pagen und der Königstochter; Adventlied
Carolyn Sampson, Benno Schachtner, Werner Gura, Cornelius Uhle, Jonathan Sells; Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir; Helsinki Baroque Orchestra/Aapo Häkkinen (Ondine)
Bach: St Matthew Passion
A full decade has elapsed since John Eliot Gardiner's award-winning recording for Archiv set a new standard for interpreting the St Matthew Passion. Although a 'historically aware' account, it was (with hindsight) sufficiently expressive and dramatically engaged to win the affections of those suckled on Furtwängler, Klemperer, or Karajan: even they would dissent from the appalled old noblewoman at an early performance who likened the work to ‘an Opera Comedy’.