HAYDN. The Creation-complete. Agnes Giebel (soprano), Waldemar Kmentt (tenor), Gottlob Frick (bass), Bava- rian Radio Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Eugen Jochum. Philips

AL3596-7 0 SAL3596-7 (two 12 in., 64s. 6d. plus I Is. 6d. PT).

Selected comparison

Markovich (2/56) (12/59) (R) 0 LPM18489-90

This splendid performance and recording gave me very great pleasure but did not shake my allegiance to the DGG issue. Stereo, of course, brings special benefits in the choral sections but not so great as to outweigh other considerations. Irmgard Seefried was in her best voice in the DGG, singing Gabriel's lovely music with great purity of tone and great artistry. Agnes Giebel takes a little time to find her best voice and then she is excellent and, as always, very reliable but she is rather a modestsounding archangel, and not always as perfectly steady in tone as such a one should be! All else apart I was more charmed by Seefried and felt much the same comparing Richard Holm with Waldemar Kmentt. Holm's lyric tenor was exactly what the music needs at most times in the work. Kmentt, admirable artist, as he is, sounds a little dry in his arias in comparison with Holm. The outstanding solo performance is given by Gottlob Frick. I have never heard him sing with such sensitivity. His hushed words, after the astounding prelude "The Representation of Chaos" (which is beautifully played), have the sense of awe that Jochum brings into the Prelude, especially at the marvellous close. Frick is living vividly in every moment of his part: and as D above the stave is one of his finest notes, whether loud or soft, I rejoiced greatly in his singing of "Rolling in foaming billows". His lowest notes have perhaps lost some of their former resonance but it matters not at all. One can feel the intense delight he takes in the passages about the creation of the animals and insects. What a relief for him after his big, Wagnerian part! Kmentt, I should say here, sings the exquisite music of the rising of the moon as beautifully as Holm. The chorus sing with good tone and lots of enthusiasm but their words are none too clear and this probably because the recording makes them sound a little distant. Otherwise the balance is excellent both in the trios, in the choruses, with or without solo interpolations, and in the arias.

Jochum gets very good and finely pointed playing out of the Bavarian Radio Orchestra even if the quality is not equal to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The work is presented virtually complete since the only cut is made-and wisely-in the overlong duet "Graceful consort" for Adam and Eve just before the final chorus. These records come in a boxed set plus an excellent booklet containing the German and English texts. A.R.