Most music lovers, I'm sure, can remember at least one revelatory experience when coming across a work for the first time. I will never forget the moment when I first put my much-loved LP of Barenboim's 1970 EMI recording of Bach's Magnificat on to the turntable the wrong way up and was left gasping for breath by the opening strains of Bruckner's great Te Deum: I'd never listened to ''Side B'' before! Could ever a composer make such a powerful melodic case for that fundamental harmonic progression tonic-dominant-tonic? It's a work I've sought out frequently ever since, but only now has the spine-tingling thrill of that first encounter been vividly relived. Earthshaking is the only way to describe it—literally as well as metaphorically with the thundering Westminster Cathedral organ (superimposed sensitively on this recording—only the final chord where the organ lingers long after the rest of the musicians have packed their bags and gone draws attention to the acoustical discrepancy). The orchestra plays with a self-assurance and conviction which belie the fact that they have only once before been brought together for the recording studio, while the considerably enlarged Corydon Singers sing with consummate skill, rooting out all the subtleties and nuances of Bruckner's magnificent score yet always faithful to Matthew Best's thrusting, athletic direction. What a way to celebrate their twenty-first birthday!
And how to follow that? With a performance of the D minor Mass of extraordinary power and strength. From the dazzling orchestral colour and the electrically charged climaxes piling in one on top of the other, to the opulent writing for voices encompassing a vast array of human emotions, Bruckner's debt to Wagner is everywhere apparent (the Fliegende Hollander's ghost even puts in an appearance for the Creed's ''Et iterum venturus''). This is very much Bruckner the symphonist—the orchestra certainly dominates the work—and again this orchestra produces playing of the very highest calibre.
There is an excellent team of soloists too, but the greatest accolades must go to Matthew Best and his Corydon Singers: quite simply this is the best thing they have ever done.'