[a] clean account, nicely scaled and finely balanced...There's skilful work throughout from the three soloists...Pearlman displays a keen sense of the music's shape and encompasses its range of character without over-emphasis. The overall sound picture is perfectly arranged for definition as well as grandeur.

Weil's conception of the work has changed little since his Sony recording with Tafelmusik nearly 20 years ago: brisk, no-nonsense choral singing, topped by eager, bright-edged (if not always perfectly-tuned) boys of the Tolzer Knabenchor; excellent choral-orchestral balance...Where Weil, 2012 vintage, scores decisively over his earlier recording is in his soloists...Best is Kevin Deas...with as sonorous a lower register...as any Raphael on disc.

Forsythe has a most pleasing voice, bright, clear and readily communicative. She has the agility required...and there is a smile in her voice that is very winning...[Jameson] gets right inside the text, his singing most musical, with a particularly satisfying legato...In all, this is a delightful, charming and often moving performance on a smallish scale, one that you may find rather lacking in drama.

Pearlman adopts near-ideal tempi for every number, and his choir and period band — medium forces for a work the composer conducted with up to 200 — are excellent. Two of his soloists, Amanda Forsythe and Kevin Jameson, sound more like cheeky servants than Archangels, but Kevin Deas’s resonant bass notes and liquid baritone ones are perfect for Raphael and Adam.