Search - Handel, Palmer, Vienna Cm :: Handel: Belshazzar (Complete)

Okay, this is a far from perfect recording, but I liked it a

Steven Guy | Croydon, South Australia | 01/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought a CD player in 1987 and I sat in my flat, just off Toorak Road and listened to this, one of my very first compact discs, endlessly. I well remember listening to in one sunny Monday afternoon with my sister, while we drank a couple of bottles of wine.



The Arnold Schoenberg Choir is impressive and Paul Esswood was as good as ever in this recording. A countertenor in the role of Cyrus would have been nice but I could live with this recording. Yes, there are now better and more idiomatic recordings of this masterpiece available, but this one is a sentimental favourite of mine. I love it in spite of its obvious flaws.



For those who remember the excitement of the new medium of compact discs and had a love of Baroque music twenty years ago, this recording may still bring back some happy memories.



Connoiseurs will obviously choose more recent and vastly superior recordings. I can understand that - I would choose more recent recordings too, now. But this old recording kind of does something for me."