Haydn: The Creation; Missa in tempore belli (2007)

performed by Alexander Young (tenor), Andrew Davis (organ), Heather Harper (soprano), James Blades (tympani [timpani]), James Lancelot (harpsichord), John Shirley-Quirk (bass), Keith Harvey (cello), Pamela Bowden (contralto), Robert Tear (tenor)
composed by Franz Joseph Haydn

The budget Classics for Pleasure line from Britain has reissued a growing variety of famous performances from the 1960s and early 1970s. Some haven't aged a bit; some offer sterling examples of how fashions change. And some fall in between those extremes. Made in 1974, this was a reference recording of Haydn's The Creation for many years, especially secure in that status among available English-language versions of the work. The soloists, English veterans of oratorio, were uniformly rich and imposing in sound, and soprano ... Read More

The budget Classics for Pleasure line from Britain has reissued a growing variety of famous performances from the 1960s and early 1970s. Some haven't aged a bit; some offer sterling examples of how fashions change. And some fall in between those extremes. Made in 1974, this was a reference recording of Haydn's The Creation for many years, especially secure in that status among available English-language versions of the work. The soloists, English veterans of oratorio, were uniformly rich and imposing in sound, and soprano Heather Harper was glorious in the role of the Angel Gabriel. The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, under David Willcocks was a supple instrument, intonationally flawless. And yet historically oriented performers have brought new ways to hear this masterpiece of Haydn's old age. The score's pictorial effects in Willcocks' reading are muted, and the wealth of instrumental detail is audible only if you're specifically listening for it. The tympani effects in the Agnus Dei of the Missa... Read Less