Title: Very Disappointing
Product review: If you want to know just how great a conductor Otto Klemperer was, compare his St. Matthew Passion with Johannes Somary's version. Both are well recorded, extremely well performed and dauntingly (and I do mean dauntingly) slow, especially to those used to listening to the tempos set by the likes of Otto Max and J.E. Gardiner. However, where Klemperer beautifully sustains the intensity of the performance and keeps an iron grip on the piece's architecture, Somary very quickly looses his way. Very little drama is generated, despite the best efforts of the soloists, and overall the performance meanders along. The result is, unfortunately, a rather dull and uninvolving Passion. If period performance is not your cup of tea, your best bet is either Klemperer's Passion or Ritcher's first (1950s) version.
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