Messiah

A heavy, ponderous, and generally unappetizing performance, the fault for which lies not so much with Karl Richter, but with the slack playing of the London Philharmonic and the less than enthusiastic singing of the John Alldis Choir. It's strange to think how much better this might have been had Richter recorded it with his usual forces in Germany, but for whatever reason, things just didn't come together this time around. --David Hurwitz