Bach: Matthaus-Passion Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.5

Bach: Matthaus-Passion Blu-ray Movie Review

The storm before the calm.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 31, 2013

It’s Easter morning as this review is being written, and as the Music Director of a large metropolitan Portland church, I’ll soon be off to conduct a large contingent of singers and musicians in what will hopefully be an uplifting part of several services which begin after sunrise and continue until early afternoon. But both Good Friday and Easter Eve (is there such a thing?) for me was spent reveling in one of the musical glories of Eastertide, Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, one of either a quartet or quintet of similar works the master composed during his lifetime, but one of only two which have survived. Bach’s compositional life was of course built largely around his religious life and professional duties, but there’s something especially magnificent about his two surviving Passions (a third has been reconstructed). St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion couldn’t be more different, however, with John’s intimacy contrasting with Matthew’s grandiosity and perhaps larger overall scale and ambitions.

With music this timeless, it really doesn't matter if you choose to listen on Good Friday, Easter or in fact in the middle of fall or winter. This is music that speaks directly to the soul, and to Man's eternal quest to find meaning in life. This performance makes beautiful use of the double choirs and orchestras which is one of this Passion's defining features. Ivan Fischer, who raised some eyebrows with some singalong Passions doesn't opt for that approach here (probably thankfully), instead utilizing an expert array of soloists, including a brilliantly fluid Mark Padmore as the Evangelist. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in collaboration with both the Netherlands Radio Choir and National Children's Choir offer some incredibly sumptuous sonorities.

Bach: Matthaus-Passion Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Matthäus-Passion is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ArtHaus Musik with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. Virtually everything about this visual presentation, from the insert booklet of the Blu-ray itself to the burnished interior of the concert hall, is tinged with deep browns, offering a suitably somber setting for this moving work. A glut of cameras is able to capture everything from a variety of angles, and close-ups reveal very nice fine detail. Some of the wide shots suffer just slightly from softness, no doubt exacerbated by the angle and how the stage lighting is pointing toward the cameras.

Bach: Matthaus-Passion Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Matthäus-Passion features two lustrous audio options, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0 mix and an LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. The 5.0 mix offers really beautiful hall ambience as well as some smart separation of soloists and ensemble. Fidelity is superb and dynamic range is quite wide, able to handle some of the hushed soli as well as the bombastic tuttis featuring choirs and orchestra.

Bach: Matthaus-Passion Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements other than trailers are included on this Blu-ray.

Bach: Matthaus-Passion Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I frankly haven't had a chance to watch or listen to the other Blu-ray offering of this monumental score (Bach: St. Matthew Passion), but I can't imagine it being any better than this one. Fischer conducts with solemnity and grace, and the soloists, choirs and orchestra are simply superb throughout. Highly recommended.