Andreas Scholl, Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh - Handel: Solomon (1999)

It's been conventional wisdom for several generations that Solomon, great oratorio though it may be, contains a lot of deadwood; conductors have regularly cut some items and changed the order of others. (Even John Eliot Gardiner's excellent recording cuts about 30 minutes of music.) Leave it to Paul McCreesh to give us the complete score--and demonstrate that Handel's original structure makes plenty of sense and that every number is worthwhile. What's more, McCreesh's performance is two and a half hours of just about nonstop magnificence. You'd think nobody could surpass Gardiner's Monteverdi Choir for precision and energy, but the Gabrieli Consort & Players do it: they're wondrously vivid, responsive to nuance, and clear in their diction. (By the way, DG's recording has thrilling separation in the double choruses.) As marvelous as Gardiner's soloists are, McCreesh's are just about their equals (though Inger Dam-Jensen as Solomon's Queen lets vibrato get the better of her first aria); Susan Gritton, Paul Agnew, and Peter Harvey in particular combine beautiful sound and diction with imaginative embellishments. Then there's the title role: yes, Handel wrote it for a female mezzo, but Andreas Scholl gives such an attractive-sounding and spirited performance that any complaint of inauthenticity seems like pedantic caviling. -- Matthew Westphal