Like those of Curlew River and The Burning Fiery Furnace, this is another transfer to CD for which I have nothing but uncritical praise. Much is owed to the acoustic of Orford Church and even more to the dedication of the performers, working with Britten with a devotion—as many of them have testified since his death—that stemmed from intense admiration for his superlative musicianship. The playing of the English Opera Group instrumentalists, hand-picked like the singers, is just fabulous—Philip Jones's trumpet playing, for example, and (as always) the wonderful viola of Cecil Aronowitz.
But I still cannot help feeling that this seam had been mined of all its richest nuggets before The Prodigal Son, last of the three church parables, was composed. Of course it has marvellous music in it, but invention flags in the crucial central episode where the Prodigal Son tastes the sins of the flesh. Pears as the Tempter at this point comes perilously near to being unintentionally comical. Yet earlier, when the Tempter first encounters the Son, one is reminded of Quint in The Turn of the Screw, although the evil in that score is never recaptured. Also, Albert Herring was a more successful example of a young man cutting the ties that bind him to a repressive home.
John Shirley-Quirk is most impressive as the Father, with Bryan Drake and Robert Tear well contrasted as his Sons. Whatever reservations I may have about the work, I have none about its performance and recording.'