"How good is this once immensely popular work? Well, it's really not bad at all, certainly more interesting than the Graun oratorio or C.P.E. Bach's Passions ... The Basler Madrigalisten performs them [choruses] with grace, precision and energy despite being, at least in Early Music terms, quite a large choir ... Hans Jörg Mammel is a very experienced Bach singers and he does a fine job here as the Evangelist - sounding more polished and suave, in fact, than I have heard him for some time ... I will return to this recording with pleasure".