Customer Reviews

Haydn: Die Schöpfung (The Creation)

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This has been the first release with Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus Wien in quite some time, and the first for Harnoncourt's new label (BMG). Because of the long hiatus, just about anything would have done, but, luckily, we don't have to settle for just anything: this new release is a real winner in every way.
By far the more popular of Haydn's two major oratorios, The Creation has been recorded by several period instrument orchestras in the past decade or so, but it's refreshing and almost revelatory to hear it done by one of the founding fathers of the early music movement. This is Harnoncourt's second recording of this work (his first was for Teldec in the 1980's - now long out of print)but his first on period instruments, and is definitely the better of the two.
As one would expect, Harnoncourt's choice of tempi are idiosynchratic and unique. Considering this is a period performance, Harnoncourt is almost uniformly slow, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. Whatever Harnoncourt does, even when it's unexpected and bizarre, he usually does well and with a great deal of thought and panache, and this recording is no exception. As usual with a Harnoncourt recording, this new reading of Haydn's masterpiece encourages the listener to hear the work in a new way, and even those who might have thought they knew The Creation backwards and forwards will be happily surprised to find that new discoveries await them here.
As far as the soloists go, Harnoncourt could not have been better blessed. Dorothea Roschmann has been one of my favorite new voices for several years now, and she shines, definitely topping Gruberova, who sang for Harnoncourt in his earlier version. Among the delights is the gorgeous first duet for Adam and Eva, in which Roschmann poignantly brings forth Eva's wonder and joy in the newly created world.
Michael Schade, a top rate baritone who just signed with BMG recently, is another inspired choice, his rich, resonant voice blending with Roschmann's and Gerhaher (the tenor)melodiously.
While, perhaps, not as robust as the Bruno Weil recording on Sony Vivarte, or as elegant as Gardiner's on Archiv, Harnoncourt's new version is well worth hearing.

Just when I thought the "bad" Harnoncourt was a thing of the past, this most unruly of conductors released a 'Marriage of Figaro' on DG that was jaw-dropping in its perverseness. This Haydn "Creation" doesn't rank that high on the eccentricity scale, but it's peculiar enough. Harnoncourt's reading if a period performance, with the usual inert, vibratoless strings, but the Concentus Musicus Wien, by now an elder statesman in the HIP genre, can't be faulted for skill. The chorus sings beautifully, and although it is on the small side, one would have to search hard for more stylish, enthusiastic singing. The recorded sound is also beautiful. To round out the pluses, the vocal soloists are also extremely good -- and hardly daunted by Harnoncourt's stops and starts, eccentric rubato, and peculiar tempo choices, the worst being on the sluggish side, as in the soprano's first aria with chorus. It's amazing that Roschmann could even breathe.

Sometimes a reading can catch you off guard in a good way, but Harnoncourt's suurprises made me wince. I expected him to explode on the "And there was light" chord, but the atomic blast he sets off is vulgar and harsh, not joyous. A good deal of Haydn's geniality has been erased, yet this is a "Creation" you can't typify with one or two blanket adjectives, since there are lovely parts as well as off-putting ones.

In the end, there were too many perverse touhes for me, yet the "bad" Harnoncourt gets just as many critical raves as his better self -- you'll have to be the judge.

It might seem strange to review a recording I have not heard. Instead I heard it live in the Musikverein, the room with perfect acoustics. I also heard, two years earlier, a Philharmoniker performance under Muti in the same room. Both were glorious, but then the music is that! They, however, are oil and water. Some call Harnoncourt's tempi slow. I call them a revelation, and the intensity never wains.

Out of the soft, subtle chaos of the opening, the "creation chord" was thunder of the gods. Wagner would have been proud. The extraodinary virtuosity of the upper string writing was total clarity and as close to perfection as human beings can achieve. Harnoncourt draws music out of his ensemble. While all of the solosits were stunning, Dorothea Röschmann must have channeled the music from he throne of God. And the Schönberg Chor was indeed the heavenly chorus. One of the few most memorable musical encounters of my life. If the recording captures any of that, it is worth the price. And easily would be the finest recording of the work on disc. How do you beat perfection.