Oedipus Rex

"Oedipus and Jocasta are both put under severe strain ... Personally, I would go for Ronald Dowds manly interpretation of Oedipus on Classics for Pleasure or, better still, George Shirleys lyrical one on Sony ... I was also unhappy with some of Robert Crafts tempi ... Les noces comes off better, exhibiting a fine rustic roughness and textual accuracy. But in view of the above comments, I can't recommend this disc overall".

""[Ardant] is, throughout, classical but also personal ... Without distorting the form, [Gardiner] allows his singers more expressive freedom than is usual ... [Skelton] brings increasing tension into his interpretation ... Johnston takes Jocasta's elaborate coloratura full tilt, bringing her aria off with great aplomb ... Saks makes a tough Creon ... This is a beautiful performance".

"Stuart Skelton is a very good Oedipus ... Jennifer Johnston's Jocasta is one of the most convincing performances of the role I've heard on record ... Apollon musagète is less good".

"Bernstein's own love-affair with Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex translates into a performance that is unignorably vivid, the Latin pronunciation notwithstanding, but a potentially electrifying Symphony of Psalms is lugubrious and morose in the meditative passages".

"Neither performances here would make it into the final cut for recordings of these Stravinsky masterpieces. For Les Noces, Bernstein and Ancerl set a standard that has not been matched since".