"Jacobs nutzt das auch zu sehr reichen dynamischen Differenzierungen und Steigerungen - alle im Dienste der Umsetzung der Passionsgeschichte als dramatischens Geshehen"

Vurdering: 4/5

"Jacobs picks singers to suit his purpose, and all here show a controlled expressive ardency that never allows the performance's emotional coherence to slip. Werner Güra's Evangelist is both elegant and immediate, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin are typically excellent, and while the RIAS Chamber Choir is not as coolly blended an ensemble as some, who says it has to be in a piece where personal involvement counts for so much"

"Vurdering: Presto disc of the week" - "An immediate, natural-feeling Passion - no showy heroics or histrionics from Jacobs, who has sometimes been known to push the boat out and court controversy in his operatic productions. Here he simply offers a well-thought-out, intelligently-paced and balanced re-telling of the story, clearly and committedly performed, allowing the music and the theology to assume centre stage"

"Einer grandiosen Neueinspielung der Johannes-Passion, in der es zahlreiche Momente gibt, in denen man ganz neue Aspekte in diesem anscheinend altbekannten Werk hören kann ... Bei der hohen Qualität des RIAS Kammerchores kann sich Jacobs denn auch ordentliche Tempi erlauben ... Die Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin folgt Jacobs dabei wieder einmal in grandioser Weise"

"A powerful and individual reading ... He favours strongly profiled rhythms, chorales with end-of-line pauses, and full-throated singing from the RIAS Chamber Choir (16 singers, augmented for the chorales"