Bach: St. Matthew Passion - Berliner Philharmoniker (2010) [Blu-ray]

Sir Simon Rattle was in no doubt: the performance of the St Matthew Passion which he realised together with Berliner Philharmoniker and the Rundfunkchor Berlin in 2010 was for him “the single most important thing we ever did here”. Critics around the world agreed. They praised the semi-staged “ritualization” by American star-director Peter Sellars, as well as the outstanding musical performances by the soloists, including Magdalena Kožená, Christian Gerhaher, Thomas Quasthoff and Mark Padmore as the Evangelist. Now the performance is published as a hardcover linen edition with a comprehensive booklet and a voucher for the Berliner Philharmoniker's Digital Concert Hall.

“The long rehearsal period, the expertise of everyone involved and the authority of the solo singers: all this quickly becomes evident...this is a defiantly modern performance, one that exults in disturbance and the irony that arises from a deeply intimate staging within the round of the Berlin Philharmonie: appropriate in terms of architectural politics but jarringly opulent and public.