[dsp0704]

What is the best recording for St. Matthew's Passion sung in English?
Thank you.

 

[chrisjackson]

Dunno but wanted to acknowledge an interesting question 

No doubt there are a few old recordings in English knocking about. And there's this British recording from 1978 :
http://www.amazon.com/J-S-Bach-St-Matthew-Passion/dp/B000J233L2
More recent in date (and apparently style) from 2009 is this :
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Orchid%2BClassics/ORC100007#listen
 
Both recordings seem to have reviews on the Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com sites.

 

[dsp0704]

Thank you for replying and also the links.

 

[Henry Flower]

I have the Willcocks--Robert Tear and Shirley-Quirk are top class singers, and there's nothing _wrong_ with this performance, but performance practices have come a long way in 30 years (largely, in my opinion, for the better). I assume you have your reasons for seeking a performance in English, but it's very rarely I would listen to this rather than Suzuki or Gardiner doing the original text. Bach is worth brushing up one's German for.

 

[JP78]

I also have the Willcocks version.  The performance is nice, but the audio quality isn't great.  The audio is uninspiring enough that I wish I'd have gotten a better recording in German instead.
 
Samples from this Dunedin Consort recording sound really good: http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-matthew-passion.aspx

 

[DavidLai]

Hi, new to the forum. I have the 2009 recording with Jeffrey Skidmore leading Ex Cathedra. As an English-speaking person (all be it my second language), it's good to have such a recording to have the text directly impact me as the listener. And, it's not the oldish English that Bernstein and his forces used for recording in 1962/63. Have a blessed Good Friday!