The way of the Cross has never been more gently depicted than in the opening of this Stabat mater. The measured footsteps tread the road to Calvary with patient suffering, and, as the voices intertwine, grief is eased in the kindliest way possible, by being shared. Any performance worthy of the name will tell that much. This one does and at the same time introduces another factor, not so commonly present, that of energy. Only superficially is this a matter of speeds, and in fact the tempo of the opening movement is quite moderate, halfway between the Hyperion recording under Robert King and that of Roy Goodman (very slow indeed here) on RCA. It is more a matter of the shaping of phrases and the sharpness of imagination to see the pictorial sense of the music, so that lamentation is a positive action rather than a passive indulgence. There is a tension in this performance, where King and Goodman are both, in their different ways, more relaxed. Tension is renewed with stronger accentuation in ''O quam tristis'': a sense of the dramatic here, so that the opening phrase is not so much statement as exclamation. In the sprightly rhythm of ''Quae moerabat'' this performance accepts wholeheartedly (however extraordinary as a treatment of the words) the enthusiasm and spring of the music. In ''Fac ut portam'', where Goodman has a perhaps deliberate hesitancy, or 'stumbling', in the heavy unison motif and King over-insists in the slowness of his tempo, Hartmut Haenchen is stronger, more powerful and affirmative.
The voices make a special contribution, not that this is the first recording to use a boy soprano and male alto. Certainly, it works very well here. Dennis Naseband sings with firm, mature tone and a highly developed sensitivity; the long-held notes with crescendo, in ''Quis est homo'' and ''Quando corpus morietur'', are particularly well controlled. Jochen Kowalski, as ever, brings life to all he touches. Other singers (Michael Chance, for instance, on Hyperion) have greater smoothness, but there is a fervour in Kowalski's singing that suits the energy of this conductor's approach. In the Salve Regina he sounds on slightly less good form, and in one movement, the ''Ad te clamamus'', Nathalie Stutzmann, soloist with Goodman, gives the more dramatic account, with an effective scurrying urgency in the orchestral playing. Indeed it is only in the last two movements that Haenchen achieves the distinction apparent throughout the Stabat mater. For that work, the new recording is well worth having; the sound, clear and natural, corresponds more or less to that on Hyperion and the balance of forces is rather more satisfying than that on the RCA disc.'