Zoë Brookshaw reviews

It is almost 30 years since John Eliot Gardiner made his first commercial recording of Bach’s Great Passion, as his family were accustomed to call it. Gardiner’s approach has not significantly changed over the decades though one discernible difference is a mixed male and female voice texture for the alto strand of the choral numbers as opposed to the all-male countertenor line up of the earlier version. I prefer the mixed sound though some readers may not.