This is an excellent performance, and at budget price very tempting. All the soloists are good, Palmer and Langridge especially (Armstrong is just a shade unsteady at times, Shirley-Quirk slightly glum and gravelly for my taste). Previn’s account of the score is solemn and impassioned, rising affectingly to all the grandest and most intensely expressive moments. Indeed the only major disadvantage is a recording which places the soloists exaggeratedly forward, at times reducing the impact of the chorus. At this price its only close rival is Sir John Pritchard’s account which is not only my favourite of all, despite its age, but one of my Desert Island discs, not least for the way in which Elsie Morison persuades you that she has truly seen a vision of “that land where all is peace”. Previn’s reading, though, is reliable, always eloquent and often very moving.'