With Donald Macleod. The last years of Haydn's life were primarily devoted to choral music; among his duties as Esterhazy kapellmeisterwas the composition of a new mass each year. But the culmination of Haydn's church music is his oratorio The Creation, the result of two years of intensive work. On being asked why he had spent so much time on it, Haydn merely said, "I intend it to last for a longtime." Benedictus (Missa in Tempore Belli) Nancy Argenta (soprano),
Catherine Denley (mezzo), Mark Padmore (tenor), Stephen Varcoe (baritone),
Collegium Musicum 90, conductor Richard Hickox The Creation: Parti
Sylvia McNair (soprano), Michael Schade (tenor), Gerald Rnley (bass), Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, conductor John Eliot Gardiner
String Quartet in C, Op 76 No 3 (Emperor) Takacs Quartet