JS Bach Matthew Passion - Dunedin Consort - The Herald

They've done it again. Last year we raved about the Dunedin Consort's Messiah, which went on to sell by the bucketload and collect starry awards across the board. Now, from the same team, again under the ultra-lucid guiding hand of conductor John Butt, here is a three-CD set of Bach's great Passion, completely refreshed with one singer to a part, rivetingly focussed on the narrative, which gives the unendingly enthralling tale an unusually gripping hold. The singing is to die for, and wait until you hear the sensational account of the great storm chorus "sind Blitze, sind Donner" in a performance that generates an excitement rivalling the hair-raising effect of the storm scene in Verdi's Otello a long time later.