Close on the heels of Herreweghe's 2nd recording of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Suzuki's from BIS is now available. Suzuki has been recording the Bach cantatas and other Bach sacred choral works with great success. I have consistently found Suzuki to be a superb interpreter of Bach's music; instrumental/orchestral contributions are as good as it gets, and the choral work is particularly outstanding (witness the St. John Passion). My only problem with Suzuki's Bach has been the sopranos he utilizes; I find them to have uniformly weak voices without much beauty of tone. Suzuki's St. Matthew Passion follows the path of his previous Bach recordings: outstanding sound, instrumentation and choral work, with just an adequate soprano soloist. This time, it's Nancy Argenta. I don't want to be hard on her. She has one of those "white" voices which I can easily be drawn to, but Argenta is not Emma Kirby - not even close. Argenta's voice is not strong and its allure is slight. Of course, there's much more to the St. Matthew Passion than the soprano soloist, so I have still greatly enjoyed this recording. Suzuki compares well with the 2nd Herreweghe recording excepting for the soprano. On that basis, I recommend Herreweghe as a first choice with Suzuki close behind; both are better than the Gardiner St. Matthew Passion which is a little short on drama. Just a few words about the work itself. Although Bach's B minor Mass is often referred to as the crowining musical achievement of Western Civilization, I prefer the St. Matthew Passion - more drama and superior choral passages. The opening of Part 1 sets the tone for the work - an inexorable march of all of humanity. I'd also like to mention a tenor aria in Part 1 which suddenly breaks loose into a choral passage which sounds as if the entire body of universal knowledge and power is pontificating from on high. Those are just two of the masterful passages from the Passion which both Herreweghe and Suzuki get just right. Don's Conclusion: A great St. Matthew Passion with only one vocal flaw which is not debilitating. Close to a must-buy. Don Satz [log in to unmask]