Release Date: 9th Apr 2003
Catalogue No: 8557296-97
Label: Naxos
Length: 1 hour 49 minutes

Choir of New College Oxford, Collegium Novum
Edward Higginbottom
James Gilchrist (tenor), John Bernays (bass), Eamonn Dougan (bass), Joe Littlewood (soprano), James Bowman (counter-tenor), Matthew Beale (tenor), Colin Baldy (bass)
Recorded: 6-14 July 2001 in Chapel of New College Oxford

St John Passion shows Bach's towering imagination at its most intensely dramatic, moving and vivid. This new reading is a testament to the vitality of the choral tradition: all the soloists are former or current members of New College Choir. 
It also presents a new level of authenticity, not only with period instruments but also with boys' voices as Bach would have used at St Thomas's Church in Leipzig.
 

an outstanding period performance which can stand comparison with any in the catalogue...The choir itself is fresh and bright, singing incisively, with the crowd choruses vividly adding to the drama...Gilchrist is a superb Evangelist, fluent and expressive, and the main quartet of soloists makes a sensitive team.

, 2010