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Wonderful record of the composer's intentions. I think he got it right in this 1964 recording, the last of the Rake's he did. What is interesting is how rarely he follows his own metronome markings in the score. He conducts with a subtle flexibility and dramatic intent much like the old Italian maestri. The orchestra plays with a beautiful lightness and clarity, and tempi allow the cast to clearly enunciate the text, even in the faster numbers.
The cast is uniformly good, with Reardon's Nick a standout. Very different than Terfel's, but no less an effort, with more nuance accentuating the suave sweetness inherent in his sound. Raskin is a lovely Anne, but is not a particularly rhythmic singer. Young's Tom is strong and sings with a heroic quality yet he can float with the best of them. Sarfaty's Baba is a hoot, with good color in the lower register. The cast is also excellent at getting the right notes and rhythms, much better than some of the other recordings out there (who wouldn't try to sing it correctly with the composer staring you in the face from the podium?)
My only qualm is the complaint I have with studio recordings from this era...the editing points are frequently very obvious. You can hear changes of timbre or resonance from take to take, and many times transitions at tempo changes are a bit awkward.
However, for the singer or conductor studying the score, this is a must. It won't necessarily be how you end up doing the show, but it is a good study into the mind and music-making of the composer. And it demonstrates the paragraph in the preface to the score that the conductor should take into account the individual singers, acoustics of the hall, the ability of the orchestra, etc, in shaping the score.
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