BACH: ST MATTHEW PASSION - RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Staats- und Domchor Berlin, René Jacobs (2 CDS)

Previously released as a deluxe Hybrid SACD with a bonus DVD, Rene Jacobs's acclaimed recording of the Bach St. Matthew Passion is now available as a standard CD at a special price. Jacobs leads a cast of superb soloists, backed by the RIAS Kammerchor and Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, in a recording that focuses on the paradox of a drama that is at once intimate, theatrical, and collective. As always, there are interpretive surprises, but the recording's emotional and spiritual intensity is a constant from beginning to end.