OTF - Handel's Messiah

[itywltmt]

As evidenced by other discussion threads on OperaLively, this is the time of year for staging Handel’s enduring oratorio, Messiah. (The other time of year, of course, being Easter).

The Messiah discography and the traditions surrounding its performance are extensive, and require a few comments.

The oratorio contains 53 individual sections, and it is customary – in live performance anyway – to omit about a dozen of them. Some “purists” may feel slighted by that long-standing tradition, but I consider that many sections can be skipped without really affecting the overall opus as they are sometimes quite introspective in nature and a shorter “live performance” isn’t worse for wear, if you ask me…

Speaking of purists, I’ve heard Messiah performed under “authentic” conditions, some of them adopting original orchestration - classical-era musicians added woodwinds – and more British/Victorian era conditions where there’s “strength in numbers”. As with a lot of music, there’s nothing sacrilegious about doing things one way or the other, as Messiah is about the tone, the text and the interpretation.

I read recently in a review that, like we do for Bruckner symphonies, it is important to identify the “edition”: the 1998 Clifford Bartlett edition seems to be the recent “darling” edition, supplanting the Watkins Shaw edition that many ensembles used in the 80’s and 90’s. Both editions keep to the Handel model of three “parts”, Part Two ending with the famous “Halleluiah Chorus”.

Today, however, I wanted to share a different interpretation, that precedes the HIP movement by a couple of decades, and takes liberties in the arrangement of the sections that few musicians would dare to attempt nowadays.

It should first be stated that in one way or another every performance of Messiah is a version of the work - whether because of cuts (almost always model), or drastic variation in the size of orchestra and/or chorus, or differences in instrumentation (there is much scholarly debate on the subject of Handel's original orchestral intentions), or in the use of Mozart's additional wind parts (some of which have been proved to be by Hiller, not Mozart, or for many other reasons too technical to discuss here.

This quote is taken straight from the original liner notes accompanying today’s performance on vinyl by the conductor, Leonard Bernstein.

Indeed, there is such a thing as a “Bernstein Edition” of Messiah, and it finds its inception in a live performance by Bernstein and the New-York Philharmonic that pre-dates his tenure there as music director – Carnegie Hall, 1956.

Bernstein in those early years, and throughout his life, was a maverick of sorts, looking for new ways to approach just about everything he performed. Here are the two main things you should know:

• He used the “Victorian” edition by Ebenezer Prout (with a real continuo instead of the wind quartet suggested in this edition). In some movements the Mozart/Hiller instrumentation (additional winds) is used.
• Bernstein saw the second part of the work as falling into two sections: switching them put the "joyful" music of the latter half of Part II immediately after Part I (the "Christmas" section), reshaping the whole work into two large parts rather than three.

The result? Well, it sure isn’t for the purists… The quest for authenticity has overtaken interpretation in many ways, and a conductor recording 'Messiah' without attempting a historically-informed style of performance does so at its own peril! And nobody would dare introduce the level of revision that Bernstein did for this 1956 recording and the Carnegie Hall performances which preceded it.

Sometimes, you have to take the moment in, and admire the “sporting element” (as Bernstein and his friend and mentor Dimitri Mitrpoulos would say). Bernstein's rearrangement of the sections works as the dramatic sequence he intended, and his reasons for doing it make sense. He made no claims to authenticity and didn't apologize for mucking about with a "masterpiece."

This is a powerful, vibrant 'Messiah' with elegant solo singing and a chorus which could sing softly when necessary and let the great choruses rip through. Although not for purists, it is both a fascinating document of Bernstein's concept of the piece and a performance well worth listening.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Georg Friedrich HANDEL (1685 - 1759)
Messiah, HWV 56
Libretto by Charles Jennens after the Bible
Adele Addison, soprano
Russell Oberlin, countertenor
David Lloyd, tenor
William Warfield, baritone
Westminster Choir
(John Finley Williamson, director)
New York Philharmonic
Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Detailed Order of Numbers: http://www.tp4.rub.de/~ak/disc/ro/sony60205.html
Performance URL (MQCD Musique Classique) - http://www.mqcd-musique-classique.co...ead.php?t=5541

[Florestan]

I am on a Messiah run now, listening to all my sets because I am attending live next Saturday.

Here is an interesting site that lists many Messiah sets: www.messiah-guide.com/

I have bought and sold a few sets and settled into a handfull that I just listened through.

My favorite two:

Marriner is a unique performance quite different from the standard performance.


On the right is Akademisk Orchester & Choir - Morten Topp

This sung-in-German set is very nice with Gundula Janowitz


EDIT: As I just got the Pinnock set, and am listening multiple times today because it is so good, it very well may rise up to the top as one of my favorite sets.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

Like Florestan I'm listening to as many versions as I can prior to my very first live performance on 17th December. Thank's for the link. Very useful.

Am currently listening (courtesy of YouTube) this one

http://www.messiah-guide.com/gardiner.html

[SenaJurinac]

Excerpts, from the Easter Concert of Bach Consort Vienna:

http://klassikundopern.web.tv/video/...6__q1hyxnng6wk

And with Peter Dijkstra conducting B'rock Belgian Baroque Orchestra Ghent in Munich:

http://klassikundopern.web.tv/video/...4__gksxb624qzq

[Monchi]

Like Florestan I'm listening to as many versions as I can prior to my very first live performance on 17th December. Thank's for the link. Very useful.

Am currently listening (courtesy of YouTube) this one

http://www.messiah-guide.com/gardiner.html

I like it! Thanks for the link.

[Florestan]

Like Florestan I'm listening to as many versions as I can prior to my very first live performance on 17th December. Thank's for the link. Very useful.

Am currently listening (courtesy of YouTube) this one

http://www.messiah-guide.com/gardiner.html

On the front page (http://www.messiah-guide.com/) there is a top ten list and another ten honorable mentions. Or you can do like I did and go through the whole list (http://www.messiah-guide.com/recordings.html) which has some 200+ recordings and check them out. In doing that I ended up buying the Solti set which is quickly becoming my favorite. Also discovered the Bonynge set from that list, and had to get it for awesome contralto, Huguette Tourangeau!

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

On the front page (http://www.messiah-guide.com/) there is a top ten list and another ten honorable mentions. Or you can do like I did and go through the whole list (http://www.messiah-guide.com/recordings.html) which has some 200+ recordings and check them out. In doing that I ended up buying the Solti set which is quickly becoming my favorite. Also discovered the Bonynge set from that list, and had to get it for awesome contralto, Huguette Tourangeau!

Thank you! I'll have a look at this.

[Florestan]

Thank you! I'll have a look at this.

Going to need a few good blocks of time. I went through more or less by decades as they are listed chronologically. I tried to find an email but can't and want to suggest he add the ratings on the main list. So I opened each one and scrolled down and for the most part if the rating was low, I pursued it no further. Mainly looked at those rated 7/10 and up.

Also, I immediately deleted those opened tabs if it said 1 disk (no highlights Messiah for me), and any with a countertenor (personal thing). Really, I was looking specifically for a great alto/contralto singer with the remainder of the singers more than adequate.

I am sure I missed a lot, and can go back through it again and again, perhaps on my annual Messiah craze where I usually pickup one or more new sets.

[Florestan]

Here is another Messiah review list. Much shorter (34 entries) but interesting nonetheless.

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

Here is another Messiah review list. Much shorter (34 entries) but interesting nonetheless.

Thank you.

[Florestan]

Here is a pretty good Messiah set, tempo a little on the slow side, but nice singing from all the soloists and if you look below the CD cover image, you'll see two links to 99 cent download big box sets of about 276 and 280 tracks each with this Messiah set (near the end on each one).


Big Handel Oratorio Box

Big Christmas Box

[MAuer]

Looks like an interesting group of soloists. I might need to explore further (as if I don't have enough Messiah recordings already!)

[Florestan]

Looks like an interesting group of soloists. I might need to explore further (as if I don't have enough Messiah recordings already!)

For 99 cents you can't go wrong.

This was my first, originally purchased on vinyl in the 1980s:

[Florestan]

Listening to this one now:

[Florestan]

Just ordered this one. Seems one can NEVER have enough Messiah sets.
review and clips here: http://messiah-guide.com/graden.html