This is tricky. That’s what happens when your longtime benchmark version of a work is rerecorded by the same artist. Why did he (or she) do it? And is the new version better than—or as good as—the original? In the case of John Eliot Gardiner’s new Saint John Passion, the first question is easily answered because Gardiner has explained it in his program note. As he worked through his epic Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, Gardiner came to the conclusion that the Saint John Passion was not an independent, freestanding work, but rather the logical and spiritual culmination of Bach’s first cantata cycle—that the cantatas of 1723 and early 1724 were, in effect, a cumulative prelude to thePassion. Consequently, for Gardiner himself the final concert in New York did not close the door on the Pilgrimage; he had to perform the Saint John Passion. Three years later, on March 22, 2003, he broadcast this live performance from the Kaiserdom in Königslutter, Germany.

How does the new version differ from the original? For starters, it was not recorded in a studio but instead from a live broadcast performance. Fortunately, the usual hazards of live recording are not much of an issue here, and, even better, there is no applause at the end of the performance. Both the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists have undergone modest diets. The choir now numbers 6-4-4-4, down from 7-6-5-5, and the strings are down one first violin to 5-4-3-3-1. SDG’s roster lists one organist, not two, and does not mention specialists for the viola d’amore, viola da gamba, oboes d’amore, or oboes da caccia. A female alto soloist, Bernarda Fink, has replaced countertenor Michael Chance. SDG’s disc break comes at the end of part 1, not at the halfway point.