page_title: Die Schöpfung & Harmoniemesse (Leonard Bernstein recording)
section_title: Reviews
hierarchical_section_title: Die Schöpfung & Harmoniemesse (Leonard Bernstein recording) / Critical reception / Reviews
context_page_description: Die Schöpfung & Harmoniemesse is a 1992, 149-minute CD issue of two studio recordings of classical vocal works by Joseph Haydn, both accompanied by the New York Philharmonic and conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The oratorio Die Schöpfung, sung by Judith Raskin, John Reardon, Alexander Young and the Camerata Singers, was first released in 1968. The Harmoniemesse, sung by Judith Blegen, Simon Estes, Kenneth Riegel, Frederica von Stade and the Westminster Choir, was first released in 1975.
context_section_description: Alec Robertson reviewed Die Schöpfung on LP in Gramophone in January 1969, comparing Bernstein's recording with what he considered to be the best of its predecessors, a 1968 Decca album conducted by Karl Münchinger. In the work's Introduction, Haydn's depiction of the world's primordial chaos, Münchinger, he wrote, offered "mystery and awe", Bernstein drama and colour. In Bernstein's recording, "God was not so much moving over the face of the water as being moved", driven across it by the conductor. This contrast between Münchinger's and Bernstein's approaches continued when the archangel Raphael began his narration. Where Münchinger's Tom Krause sang "in hushed tones", Bernstein's John Reardon sang "loudly, and so [destroyed] the atmosphere just created". Matters improved on Bernstein's album when Alexander Young delivered Uriel's "Now vanish before the holy beams", Bernstein laudably animating a "rhythmic vitality... admirably suited to this work". Young's virile singing and the more lyrical performance of Münchinger's Werner Krenn were both enjoyable in their own way. As the soprano archangel, Gabriel, Münchinger's Elly Ameling was unequivocally better than Bernstein's Judith Raskin, with "more variation of tone" and "more sensitive feeling" than the American. The albums' rival choirs and orchestras all had much to commend them. Bernstein's Camerata Singers sang with "great enjoyment and excellent tone"; Münchinger's Vienna State Opera Chorus with superior diction. Similarly, where Bernstein's New York Philharmonic provided "finely pointed orchestral detail", Münchinger's Vienna Philharmonic had a string section that the Americans could not equal. Bernstein's album was better engineered than Münchinger's, offering "bright recording", "great clarity" and "excellent balance". In sum, though, even if Bernstein's release gave "considerable pleasure and [had] a great deal to recommend it", Münchinger's version was the more desirable of the two overall.
  Richard Freed reviewed the Harmoniemesse on LP in Stereo Review in September 1975. "There can be few scores of any kind", he wrote, "whose vigour, joy and unlaboured exaltation find so close a parallel in the characteristics of Bernstein's music-making." All four vocal soloists sang well, particularly Frederica von Stade in the Gloria's "Gratias agimus tibi" and Judith Blegen in the Credo's "Et incarnatus est". The chorus was no less impressive, if it could perhaps have sung even more lustily than it did. The New York Philharmonic, sometimes disappointing with other conductors, was on its best form for Bernstein. The recording quality was variable, but mostly satisfactory. "One hesitates to overwork such words as 'inspiration' and 'glory'," Freed concluded, "but these are the qualities that shine from every bar of this beautiful performance."
  Roger Fiske reviewed the Harmoniemesse on LP in Gramophone in December 1975, comparing it with an Argo disc of the Mass conducted by George Guest and released in 1966. Bernstein's soloists, he thought, sounded as though they were "behind the orchestra and in amongst the chorus", Guest's as though they were standing much closer. Bernstein's arrangement was possibly in accord with the custom of Haydn's own day, but seemed to deny his soloists as much scope for self-expression as had been enjoyed by Guest's. Bernstein's chorus itself was "of the highest class", as was his orchestra, which demonstrated its virtuosity by coping with the breakneck pace that he had adopted, perhaps unwisely, for the end of the "Agnus Dei". The audio quality of his disc was fairly good, even if his balance engineer had allowed his woodwinds to "occasionally sound unnaturally prominent". Bernstein's was "a strong, vivid performance", but, although there was little to choose between the two discs, Guest's was the better both technologically and musically.
  David S. Gutman reviewed Die Schöpfung and the Harmoniemesse coupled on CD in Gramophone in May 1993. Bernstein's Die Schöpfung, he thought, was among the conductor's better essays in Haydn. Yes, the solo singin
caption: Eugène Delacroix's painting (circa 1826) of the elderly, blind John Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his daughters
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