Philippe Herreweghe & Collegium Vocale Gent - Bach: Johannes-Passion, BWV 245 - The Observer

From the pounding, grinding opening chorus onwards, this is a completely gripping picture of the Passion story ... One shock to a purist early-music approach will be the use of the eloquent tenor Maximilian Schmitt as a thoroughly operatic Evangelist, but he matches well the dramatic approach of the whole ... Herreweghe’s choir Collegium Vocale Gent, replenished over the years, is ever fresh and precise.