Director John Butt keeps the ensemble tight and maintains a brisk, flowing pace, finding a homogenous balance between arias, recitatives, choruses and chorales. The orchestra is nimble, subtly virtuosic but more concerned with warmth and luminosity of texture; Jesus' string 'halos' sound especially luxurious. This version of the score substitutes a harpsichord for an organ and adds in a viola da gamba for greater textural depth.

However, the great revelation here is Butt's decision to use solo voices in the choral parts: the first and second choirs contain but four voices each. Where larger choirs provide a greater sense of majesty and further richness of timbre, here intimacy is key. The choral grumblings are truer – more direct, more harrowing – and the chorales shoot directly to the heart. It helps that the performance is recorded in absolutely sumptuous sound, with every vocal and instrumental line audible and no loss of clarity in the larger ensembles.

Nicholas Mulroy is an excellent Evangelist, his tenor easy and golden, and also highly expressive. He drives forward the performance remarkably, fully realising the function of silence as a dramatic tool, and singing stylishly and evenly throughout. Matthew Brook's Jesus is no less good. The two singers take their place in the first choir, the remaining choral voices consistently expressive and beautifully vocalised. There's a hint of English reserve in Clare Wilkinson's alto, but her delivery is pleasingly easy; Susan Hamilton has a brighter voice, slightly wild but controlled, and able to navigate well her melismatic vocal writing.

The performance is, however, to be prized not for the strengths of individual voices, but rather for the inescapable sense of ensemble conjured. The orchestra and the voices meld to provide a musical experience that is gripping, moving and ultimately transcendental. Buy this disc.

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