This famous Dutch Radio recording of Mengelberg’s 1939 Palm Sunday performance of the St Matthew Passion, an annual event over which he had presided in Amsterdam since 1899, is here presented in its entirety as originally released, filled out with the conductor’s complete commercial recordings of the works of J.S. Bach. If the performance upholds the old, monumental, romanticised tradition of Bach performing style, it nevertheless possesses a deeply felt spirituality, poignancy and commitment as if all concerned knew that it would be their last before the catastrophic events that overtook Europe in September 1939.