Handel: The Messiah |  | Creators: John Shirley-quirk, Olga Hegedus, George Frederick Handel, Raymond Leppard, Rodney Slatford, English Chamber Orchestra, Leslie Pearson, Felicity Palmer, Ryland Davies, Philip Jones, Carl Pini
Label: Erato
Category: Music
Buy Used: $49.99
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 317830
Format: Box Set
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
UPC: 022924544729
EAN: 0022924544729
ASIN: B00000E8T7
Release Date: August 12, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Part 1: Symphony | | • | Part 1: "Comfort ye, me people" | | • | Part 1: "Every valley shall be exalted" | | • | Part 1: "And the glory of the Lord" | | • | Part 1: "Thus saith the Lord" | | • | Part 1: "But who may abide the day of His coming" | | • | Part 1: "And He shall purify the sons of Levi" | | • | Part 1: "Behold, a virgin shall conveive" | | • | Part 1: "O Thou that tellest good tidings to Zion" | | • | Part 1: "O Thou that tellest good tidings to Zion" | | • | Part 1: "For behold, darkness shall cover the earth" | | • | Part 1: "The people that walked in darkness" | | • | Part 1: "For unto us a child is born" | | • | Part 1: Pifa | | • | Part 1: "There was shepherds" | | • | Part 1: "Glory to God in the highest" | | • | Part 1: "Rejoice greatly, o daughter of Zion" | | • | Part 1: "Then shall the eyes of the blind" | | • | Part 1: "He shall feed His flock" | | • | Part 1: "His yoke is easy" | | • | Part 2: "Behold the Lamb of God" | | • | Part 2: "He was despised and rejected of men" | | • | Part 2: "Surely, He hath borne our griefs" |
Disc 2
| • | Part 2: "And with His stripes we are healed" | | • | Part 2: "All we like sheep have gone astray" | | • | Part 2: "All they that see Him" | | • | Part 2: "He trusted in God" | | • | Part 2: "Thy rebuke hath broken His heart" | | • | Part 2: "Behold, and see if there be any sorrow" | | • | Part 2: "He was cut off out of the land" | | • | Part 2: "But Thou didst not leave His soul" | | • | Part 2: "Lift up your heads" | | • | Part 2: "Unto which of the angels" | | • | Part 2: "Let all the angels of God" | | • | Part 2: "Thou art gone up on high" | | • | Part 2: "The Lord gave the word" | | • | Part 2: "How beautiful are the feet" | | • | Part 2: "Their sound is gone out into all lands" | | • | Part 2: "Let us break their bonds asunder" | | • | Part 2: "He that dwelleth in heaven" | | • | Part 2: "Thou shall break them" | | • | Part 2: "Hallelujah" | | • | Part 3: "I know that my Redeemer liveth" | | • | Part 3: "Since by man came death" | | • | Part 3: "Behold, I tell you a mystery" | | • | Part 3: "The trumpet shall sound" | | • | Part 3: "Then shall be brought to pass" | | • | Part 3: "But thanks be to God" | | • | Part 3: "If God is for us" | | • | Part 3: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" | | • | Part 3: "Amen" |
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| Customer Reviews:
Small-Scale Handel; Big-Time Results December 19, 2008
Erik North (San Gabriel, CA USA)
Because Handel did not leave set in stone that most famous of all choral works, namely his masterpiece "Messiah", there is no definitive version of this epic oratorio about the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Many arrangements for orchestra have been made of it, by everyone from Mozart (who added trombones to Handel's original scoring) to Sir Eugene Goosens, whose extreme embellishments for Sir Thomas Beecham's 1959 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recording continue to either embolden or enrage listeners to this very day. And there are, of course, those of the period instrument movement who try, with frequently solid results, to speculate what this masterpiece of Western music sounded like at its premiere in Dublin in April 1742.
But there is also a middle ground for modern orchestras and choirs who take advantage of the full forces Handel called for but don't tilt to extremes. One such recording of that kind is this fine 1984 recording featuring a quarter of fine vocal soloists--Felicity Palmer, Helen Watts, Ryland Davies, and John Shirley-Quirk. In this case, the orchestra and choir are the relatively modest forces of the English Chamber Orchestra and Choir, under the baton of Raymond Leppard. Being a specialist in the Baroque and Classical period that Leppard is, especially with Handel, "Messiah" is in good hands. Even with a relatively small-scale approach to the work, the imposing grandeur is not sacrificed for the sake of pomp, circumstance, or period-instrument fidelity. This all-British recording is right up there with Sir Andrew Davis' 1987 Toronto Symphony recording for EMI (which I've also reviewed) for the best available recordings of this oft-recorded work, and comes highly recommended. It is small-scale Handel, but the results are a big time success.
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