Handel Messiah

Handel's 'Messiah' is one of the most sung oratorios in the world and its great choruses and arias can be heard on countless classical collections. From its premiere to the present day, this great sacred work enjoys almost unbroken popularity and has always fascinated audiences and musicians alike. In the chapter "Resurrection of George Frideric Handel" of his book "Decisive Moments in History", Stefan Zweig provides a particularly colourful description of Handel’s "Messiah". Starting from the fresh spirit of the work, he creates a lively story that lets the reader look over his shoulder as he composes the work. In it, he illustrates the timelessness and special position of this great composition in the context of music history. In September 2019, the choir and orchestra of the Gaechinger Cantorey, under the direction of their principal conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann, got to the bottom of this singular work and, together with an excellent quintet of soloists, recorded this stirring and masterly interpretation.

Why yet another Messiah? ‘I went through the different scores that exist and decided on the very interesting 1754 version, which features five soloists. You must remember that, when Handel arrived somewhere to perform his oratorio, he had soloists of varying standards available to him. So he quickly revised his score accordingly… All this is directly related to the reality of Handel’s situation as a concert promoter. In those days, to earn a living from his music, a composer absolutely had to get his works performed and make a profit on the evening.

Following several acclaimed albums of Handel’s operatic and choral masterpieces (including a triumphant Giulio Cesare with Natalie Dessay as Cleopatra and the oratorio La Resurrezione with British soprano Kate Royal), French harpsichordist and conductor Emmanuelle Haïm at last brings her fresh, expressive approach to Messiah.

Georg Friedrich Händels Messiah wurde am 13. April 1742 erstmals in Dublin aufgeführt und danach mehrmals umgearbeitet. Doch es existiert eine frühere Fassung von 1741, die auf den beiden autographen Partituren des Komponisten basiert. Der Musikwissenschaftler Malcolm Bruno hat diese Urfassung rekonstruiert. So agiert hier nun ein eigenständiger Holzbläsersatz aus zwei Oboen und Fagotten, und auch bei den Arien kann man Neues entdecken. Bruno ist von der Ersteinspielung des „Ur-Messiah“ begeistert und hoff t, „dass der Zuhörer die Erfahrung macht, den Messiah so zu hören, als ob er zum allerersten Mal aufgeführt würde, als ob die Tinte von Händels Manuskript noch feucht wäre.“ George Frideric Handel‘s Messiah was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and subsequently reworked several times. However, an earlier version from 1741 exists, based on the composer‘s two autograph scores. The musicologist Malcolm Bruno has reconstructed this original version and published it with Breitkopf & Härtel. In this version, an independent woodwind section consisting of two oboes and bassoons can be heard, and there are also new discoveries to be made in the arias. Bruno is enthusiastic about the first recording of the „Ur-Messiah“ and hopes „that the listener has the experience of hearing the Messiah as if for a fi rst time, as if the ink of Handel’s manuscript were still wet“.

“A lifetime of performing Messiah has brought me enough courage to record this singularly famous piece of music. With the finest musicians and soloists on the planet surrounding me, I’m finally ready to lay down my personal interpretation for posterity.”

“A lifetime of performing Messiah has brought me enough courage to record this singularly famous piece of music. With the finest musicians and soloists on the planet surrounding me, I’m finally ready to lay down my personal interpretation for posterity.”

Of all English oratorios Handel’s Messiah has always been the most overwhelmingly popular. It is the least theatrical of his oratorios and the most purely sacred in its choice of subject matter. The vivid choral writing- there are more choruses in Messiah than in any other Handel oratorio- coupled with the expressive density of the solo arias, have ensured its status as one of the greatest choral masterpieces in the Western canon. Since winning the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Award and conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, Edward Polochick has attracted international attention as an orchestral, operatic, and choral conductor. He is the founding Artistic Director of Concert Artists of Baltimore since 1987.

It's hard to imagine another orchestra and chorus coming as close to perfection as the LSO do on this disc. With even tempo, clear articulation and well-mannered dynamics throughout, like Handel himself would have felt his composition was given as fine a treatment as any. The piece itself needs no introduction. If the climax on this recording of the Hallelujah chorus doesn't send chills down your spine while simultaneously uplifting your soul, well, I don't know what will! Absolutely magnificent.