This is the second recording of the St Matthew Passion to appear on Naxos and while not superseding Geza Oberfrank’s 1993 reading, Helmut Müller-Brühl asks rather different questions. His approach is highly consistent in its measured emotional climate, youthful exuberance and respectful obedience to an adopted diet of ‘period’ style, albeit executed on modern instruments. Where Oberfrank is more variable and risky (although notable for spontaneity and the highly impressive soprano Ibolya Verebits), this version takes tidy restraint as its point of departure.

The results are, however, rather more compelling than the Cologne ensemble’s recent disc (3/06) of alto arias with Marianne Beate Kielland (who also sings here) in terms of expressive range. The Dresden Chamber Choir are a committed and colourful group who bring a dynamic and incremental effectiveness to the great opening chorus, ‘Kommt, ihr Töchter’, a beseeching grandeur to ‘O Mensch bewein’ dein’ Sünde gross’ and a theatrical adrenalin in the crowd scenes, despite a curiously recessed sound. The other benefit is adroit obbligato playing, divulging something of the individual personality of the performers, quite mesmerisingly in the case of ‘Komm, süsses Kreuz’ which uses the earlier version with solo lute instead of viola da gamba.

What ultimately sullies this account is the disappointing level of vocal character in the aria singing. Markus Schäfer is not the tenor of the award-winning St Matthew with Nikolaus Harnoncourt; the soprano Claudia Couwenbergh is a brittle presence and joins almost all the soloists in an overall impression of technical insecurity, mainly in the tuning. Raimund Nolte’s Christus is more accomplished but bland, and positively (or, rather, negatively) saunters through the noble communion recitative, ‘Trinket alle daraus’, as if new covenants were two-a-penny.

The notable exception is Nico van der Meel, whose bright, light but engaged Evangelist lifts the pathos of the narrative onto an intimate and often deeply touching level; if not quite in the Helmut Krebs league (for Fritz Werner), his open-hearted delivery arguably conveys more than his assiduous reportage for Frans Brüggen (Philips, 7/98 – nla). In sum, this is a serious and often impressive reading (if not, I must admit, to my taste), badly let down by sub-standard solo contributions. There are no texts included as there were in Naxos’s Oberfrank recording.