Haydn : the Creation

[Barbirollians]

I have the highlights of the Bernstein recording which i have always enjoyed but feel the need to upgrade to a complete Creation- should I stick with Lenny or are there better alternatives ?

[John Skelton]

For me the performance conducted by René Jacobs http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//HMC902039-40.htm (the blurb might give the impression it's a recording from the Barbican, which it isn't). Though if you don't like relatively small forces and period instruments you may wish to stick with Lenny .

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Bernstein's recording was the first one I owned, being given to be by my university friends for my 21st birthday. However, the LPs were recorded at a very high level, in the way of CBS at the time, so the dynamic range was rather like that of a drumkit player. Later I bought the VPO/Munchinger, which seemed far more tasteful, and this remains my favourite to this day.

[VodkaDilc]

The version which I have known for many years is the one conduced by David Willcocks, with King's College Choir, Heather Harper, Robert Tear and John Shirley-Quirk. It gives no claim to authenticity and glories in the wonderfully quirky (sorry!) English words. (If it's to be sung in English, why try to improve on them?)

Nowadays, though enjoying Willcocks occasionally, my preference is for Hengelbrock on DHM.

[BBMmk2]

I have JEG, Paul McCreesh and Rattle. Why not try The Seasons?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Sony/CBS Bernstein or the later DG version, Barbi?
I like Lennie's later recording, but, for a "Big Band" Creation, nothing matches Karajan's flawed, heavily edited but magnificent 1960s version IMO.
Rene Jacobs for a HIPP alternative.

You might also find this interesting reading:

http://www.earlymusicworld.com/id26.html

Best Wishes and Happy Listening: it is a glorious work!

[aeolium]

I agree that The Creation is an astonishing work, fhg, but I feel it was a pity that Haydn was persuaded to write the follow-up oratorio The Seasons which imv is nothing like as powerful and which seems to have taken a great effort to write. If he had not been engaged on that, perhaps he might have been able to write a full set of quartets for op 77 rather than just the two (marvellous ones) which he completed. Oh well....

[Nick Armstrong]

for a "Big Band" Creation, nothing matches Karajan's flawed, heavily edited but magnificent 1960s version IMO.
R

Seconded, ferne - no one should be without those Adam and Eve duets, DF-F and above all Janowitz heart-stopping... And Fritz Wunderlich to boot!

PS interested to read that, aeolium, as I have never been able to warm to The Seasons.

[mercia]

Fritz Wunderlich

is this the recording that (wikipedia says) has recitatives recorded by another tenor because Wunderlich had passed away?

[Nick Armstrong]

is this the recording that (wikipedia says) has recitatives recorded by another tenor because Wunderlich had passed away?

That's the one...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh yes; Wunderlich's spine-tingling entry ("And God saw the light": one of the few recits he recorded here) after the "Licht" chord is just something everyone should treat themselves to at least once in their life.
And, as Cali says, DF-D and Janowitz (alone and together: Janowitz's exultant rising scale at the end of "The Marv'llous work behold amazed" ).
And the choruses.

To hell with "balance": THIS is the recording to have!

(PS: it's all in German, of course - I use the English words because that's how I learnt it as a 12-yr-old treble!)

PPS: anyone know the "Live" recording made just before this studio version (Wunderlich singing everything, Kim Borg instead of DF-D)?

[vinteuil]

... yes, like others I wdn't be without the Karajan - Janowitz - Wunderlich - DFD - Ludwig Schöpfung.

However - with ears now more attuned to a HIPP approach - I can much recommend the Bruno Weil with Tafelmusik and Ann Monoyios, Jörg Hering, Harry van der Kamp on Sony.

I like The Seasons. And there's a pretty good version with la Petite Bande and Sigiswald Kuijken on virgin veritas...

[VodkaDilc]

..


I like The Seasons. And there's a pretty good version with la Petite Bande and Sigiswald Kuijken on virgin veritas...

And, with a completely different approach, to put it mildly, there's a wonderful Beecham version on SOMM. (Though I agree that everything Kuijken does is worth buying.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

(Though I agree that everything Kuijken does is worth buying.)

[Barbirollians]

The DG Bernstein I was referring to . Karajan's soloists do sound very tempting though.