The oratorio "The Creation" is one of the highlights of Joseph Haydn's late oeuvre. The work, first performed in 1798, is considered the most successful work by the great composer and, at the same time, a prime example of the classical oratorio. The present recording of the creation dates from 1975. In the leading roles will sing the award-winning American soprano Helen Donath, the German tenor Adalbert Kraus and the Swiss bass baritone Kurt Widmer. They will be accompanied by the alto Vera Scherr as well as the Süddeutsche Madrigalchor and the Festival Orchestra Ludwigsburg, under the direction of Wolfgang Gönnenwein, the longtime artistic director of the festival (1972 to 2004).

J.S. Bach's Johannes-Passion, or St. John Passion, BWV 245 – one of just two surviving Bach Passion works out of an original four or five – is, simply put, a headache for editors and performers wishing to recreate the authentic, stamped-and-approved original work. There is no such beast: the work was performed at least four times during Bach's lifetime, and for each new presentation he overhauled the music, adding numbers, deleting numbers, changing numbers, so that today we really have four different St. John Passions through which to pick and choose our way. Happily enough, however, Bach misses the mark in not a single one of those numbers, and the director can hardly go wrong selecting from such a wealth of fine material.

Among traditional modern-instrument versions of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Wolfgang Gönnenwein’s 1968 recording has a lot to offer. Not least is the excellent choral singing from top to bottom. The texts are always clear, and the pacing for the chorales is governed by the story’s dramatic unfolding. You can’t help but be hooked by Evangelist Theo Altmeyer’s warm tone and vivid portrayal, complemented by Franz Crass’ sonorous, touching Jesus. What a joy it is to hear Teresa Zylis-Gara, Julia Hamari, and Hermann Prey at the peak of their respective powers. Tenor Nicolai Gedda is heard to better advantage with Gönnenwein than in Otto Klemperer’s recording, where he struggled with that conductor’s craggy tempos. The orchestra plays beautifully, and the engineering does full justice to Bach’s antiphonal interplay.