Pierre Paquin wrote:

>I've tried, believe me, to zero in on Harmoncourt's work to find out what
>all the fuss is about and can only appreciate his efforts with some of the
>Bach Cantatas.  Since those recordings, a herd of other stuff has come our
>way, causing much irritation, especially his Mozart "complete' Masses set
>which is nothing but a strange and very long exercise of ill-placed "pian
>e forte".  [...]

That Mozart set with church music consists of the best recordings of most
of these works.  Of course, there is competition for the Requiem and Mass
in c (Gardiner, for instance), but for the rest - nobody comes even close
to getting the spirit of Mozart's church music.  Just the sound reminds
one of the sun-lit 18th-C churches of Southern Germany and Austria, with
all the gold and plump cherubs.  Although some other HIPsters recorded
some better known masses, we are extremely fortunate in having a complete
recordings of all sacred music by WAM - not only masses, but also litanies,
vespers (both genres represented by works actually more interesting than
most of WAM's missae breves), and short sacred works.  It's a splendid set.

I am, however, less happy with Harnouncourt's Mozart operas - his cuts are
not excusable.

-Margaret Mikulska