Recorded live in Pisa cathedral, this glorious St Matthew Passion from John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir is musically as near-perfect as anyone could wish. What spoils it is the over-engineered recording, which, while admirably emphasising the two-choir, two-orchestra structure, does very odd things with the acoustic. Despite these irritations our attention is captured from the opening bars, with all the singers performing from memory, injecting a special urgency. All the Gardiner hallmarks are here: brisk tempi, crisp chorus work and a complete devotion to the text. Gilchrist and Loges excel.
