Cappella Amsterdam / Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century / Frans Brüggen JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH St. John Passion, BWV 245

One of the many delights coming from Frans Brüggen’s distinguished career has been the understanding which he brings to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach – such as here with the St John Passion – whether on the concert platform or on record. Brüggen’s cultured feeling for Bach’s musical structures as much as for its style and expressive content permits a textural clarity enjoyed by few of his directing colleagues. A special wealth of experience in the music of Bach has also been gained by the members of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century across the three decades of its existence and as part of its regular concert series (there have now been over a hundred of these tours!) and with a concentrated opportunity to focus on one work, Bach’s masterpiece was performed and recorded in Spring 2010.
Also of special note on this new recording is the presence of a solo group comprising both distinguished and rising talents, led by Markus Schäfer as the Evangelist and Thomas Oliemans as Jesus, and with Michael Chance and Marcel Beekman singing arias together with the added luxury of the present-day “Bach bass” par excellence in Peter Kooij and the radiant-voiced Carolyn Sampson. Choral support comes from the Cappella Amsterdam, also present (as was Peter Kooij) on another of Frans Brüggen’s recent revisitings for Glossa and The Grand Tour of the glories of Bach’s choral music, the B minor Mass. (Glossa)

Anima Eterna / Jos van Immerseel LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Symphonies - Ouvertures

It's possible nowadays to get a cycle of the Beethoven symphonies to suit every musical taste - from the traditional big-band performances on the modern instruments of leading symphony orchestras, to the strictest of historically informed accounts from specialist period bands. Jos van Immerseel's accounts are close to the historically purist extreme of that spectrum; his Belgian orchestra Anima Eterna is modestly sized. There's much to admire in the performances too. His tempi are generally well judged, the playing is full of character and instinctive expressiveness, even if the pitch inflections in some of the woodwind solos are an acquired taste, and textures are unfailingly transparent. Yet there's something a bit too careful about it all, with a lack of sheer emotional clout in, for instance, the first movement of the Eroica, the finale of the Seventh Symphony, and through much of the Ninth. This is hardly Beethoven as a composer breaking free of the bounds of classicism, but much more someone with their feet still very much anchored in the 18th century. (Andrew Clements / The Guardian)