• In nearly half a century since the Belgian conductor Philippe Herreweghe began performing Bach’s St John Passion (in the earliest performances he shared the direction, conducting the choruses while Ton Koopman directed the arias), he has broadened his repertory vastly. On the evidence of a new recording (Phi), this has only served to deepen and tighten his response to Bach’s 1724 masterpiece. From the pounding, grinding opening chorus onwards, this is a completely gripping picture of the Passion story. The rising chromatic choruses of part two, as the crowd calls for crucifixion, are absolutely electrifying, while the chorales, mostly done quietly and simply, are moments of wistful personal reflection amid the tumult.
One shock to a purist early-music approach will be the use of the eloquent tenor Maximilian Schmitt as a thoroughly operatic Evangelist, but he matches well the dramatic approach of the whole. Soprano Dorothee Mields is unsurpassed in Zerfliesse, mein Herze, while Herreweghe’s choir Collegium Vocale Gent, replenished over the years, is ever fresh and precise.
• Also broadening its scope is the wonderfully vigorous series Haydn 2032, under Giovanni Antonini, which reaches No 8, La Roxolana (Alpha). Previous instalments have included pieces by Haydn’s contemporaries, but this one rushes forward to Bartók. His Romanian Folk Dances are decorated with the folksy sounds of the chalumeau, alongside a quirky, multi-movement Sonata Jucunda, a discovery from the Kromeriz archive. Three Haydn symphonies receive spiffingly energetic performances from Il Giardino Armonico, with La Roxolana (Symphony No 63) making a theatrical link and Mercury (No 43) taking the honours for sheer invention.
• The inventive Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer boldly decided to experiment with Mozart’s last three symphonies in his recent Festival Hall concert with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (BBC Sounds), treating them as one work, or rather 12 separate movements, punctuated by applause, with the interval in the middle of Symphony No 40.
And in The Listening Service (BBC Sounds), my colleague Fiona Maddocks, along with the fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout (left), discussed entertainingly with Tom Service the eternal question of what makes one performance different from another.
