Performers: Emma Kirkby, soprano/ Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor/ Michael George, bass / Choir of New College, Oxford/ Chorus and Orchestra of the Academy of Ancient Music /Christopher Hogwood
Studio: Editions de L’Oiseau-Lyre DVD 071 1269 [Distr. by Universal]
Video: 4:3 full screen, color
Audio: DTS 5/2. PCM stereo
Subtitles: English
No region code
Length: 103 minutes
Rating: *****
Those who harbor reservations about the value of multimedia presentations of musical masterpieces will have these dispelled by this production. I considered recusing myself from reviewing this DVD. Any feigned perspective or attempt to distance myself from the work, I find impossible. Even recollecting The Creation, I am swept away by the grandeur and musicality of the work. The L’Oiseaux Lyre DVD is from a 1990 performance by Christopher Hogwood.
The recording site is Gloucester Cathedral, selected to architecturally and acoustically enhance the music. Add nature images from the BBC’s Natural History Series for striking cinematic textural references, as well as paintings by Blake and Turner, known to Haydn, and the viewer is confronted by a multimedia experience of remarkable artistic power. Christopher Hogwood, positioning the orchestra and chorus upon the cathedral dais and forward, creates in lifelike 5:1 surround sound the vast acoustic space of Gloucester Cathedral. Soloists and chorus are first rate, singing with great beauty, power and conviction. Hogwood’s tempi convincingly emphasize the natural ebb and flow of the work. The grandeur of Haydn’s music, his use of vocal and instrumental imagery, his mastery of composition are on display. This L’Oiseaux Lyre production realizes the full multimedia potential of one of the masterpieces of western music. A Must Have !
— Ronald Legum
