Editorial Review:

Amazon.com essential recording:
Sir Thomas Beecham's Messiah has become notorious among baroque purists (like this writer) for embodying the worst excesses of pre-1960 Handel performance: ponderous tempos, stentorian opera singers, huge lumbering choruses and orchestras, crashing cymbals, clanging triangles.... Well, we'll need a new straw man: this performance is WONDERFUL. Jon Vickers and Giorgio Tozzi negotiate Handel's writing surprisingly well; Jennifer Vyvyan takes to it naturally. The chorus and orchestra (yes, including trombones, tuba, triangle, and cymbals) may obscure the part-writing, but they fill the music with power, grandeur, and faith. If Mozart could re-orchestrate Messiah, why not Beecham? This may not be Handel's Messiah as such, it may even be a period piece itself--but it's magnificent. --Matthew Westphal









Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

---

Related Items:
     see more

Related Items:

• Handel - Messiah / Harper, Watts, Wakefield, Shirley-Quirk, LSO, C. Davis
• Handel - Messiah / Ameling · A. Reynolds · Langridge · Howell · Marriner
• Handel - Messiah / Nelson, Kirkby, Watkinson, Elliott, Thomas, AAM, Hogwood
• The Leroy Anderson Collection
• Messiah (George Frederick Handel) London Philharmonic Orchestra
• see more

---

Disc 1:

1. Overture
2. Recit: Comfort ye, my people
3. Air: Every valley shall be exalted
4. Chorus: And the glory of the Lord
5. Recit: Thus saith the Lord of Hosts
6. Air: But who may abide
7. Chorus And He shall purify
8. Recit: Behold, a virgin shall conceive
9. Air & Chorus: O thou that tellest good tidings
10. Recit: For, behold, darkness shall cover
11. Air: The people that walked in darkness
12. Chorus: For unto us a child is born
13. Pastoral Symphony
14. Recit: There were shepherds abiding
15. Recit: And the angel said unto them
16. Recit: And suddenly there was
17. Chorus: Glory to God in the highest
18. Air: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion
19. Recit: Then shall the eyes
20. Air: He shall feed his flock; Come unto Him
21. Chorus: His yoke is easy

Disc 2:

1. Chorus: Behold the Lamb of God
2. Air: He was despised
3. Chorus: Surely He hath borne our griefs
4. Chorus: And with His stripes we are healed
5. Chorus: All we like sheep have gone astray
6. Recit: All they that see Him
7. Chorus: He trusted in God
8. Recit: Thy rebuke hath broken His heart
9. Air: Behold, and see if there be
10. Recit: He was cut off out of the land
11. Air: But Thou didst not leave
12. Chorus: Lift up your heads
13. Air: How beautiful are the feet
14. Chorus: Their sound is gone out into all lands
15. Air: Why do the nations so furiously rage together?
16. Chorus: Let us break their bonds asunder
17. Recit: He that dwelleth in heaven
18. Chorus: Hallelujah!
19. Air: I know that my Redeemer liveth
20. Chorus: Since by man came death
21. Rect: Behold, I tell you a mystery
22. Air: The trumpet shall sound
23. Chorus: Worthy is the Lamb

Disc 3:

1. Recit: Unto which of the angels
2. Chorus: Let all the angels of God worship Him
3. Air: Thou art gone up on high
4. Chorus: The Lord gave the word
5. Recit: Then shall be brought to pass
6. Duet: O death, where is thy sting?
7. Chorus: But thanks be to God
8. Air: If God be for us

Rating: - The Geese are Getting Fat Again...
... and there will be a winter after the Presidential election in America, whoever wins, with the usual need to play the Messiah when Uncle Harald and Aunt Lily come to visit, if only to preclude conversation, so...

Let's do a little round-robin review of Messiah performances, which will be much more fun than exchanging barbs and diatribes. In the comment thread to follow, tell me your current favorite and least favorite Messiah recordings, and/or tell me what you think makes a good performance of this so over-performed masterpiece.

I chose this ancient performance, which I have on vinyl, as a starting place because it's so very awful that I can't imagine not launching the discussion from a consensus.
What's so bad about it?
*The orchestra is badly out of tune, at least when i can discern tuning amidst all the blare and ruckus.
*The chorus is precisely what George Orwell meant when he spoke of Handel's "big bow-wow." It's thick in timbre and unwieldy in phrasing, and it just plain doesn't make an appealing noise.
*The soloists can't keep up with the baroque sixteenth notes, and each of them has her/his own noxious vibrato.
*The tempi are absurdly slow and turgid.
*The recording quality makes the music sound like an old Studebaker car radio. even on good speakers.

I have six other performances in my collection, some old and some new. By conductor: Solti, Hogwood, Pinnock, McCreesh, Harnoncourt, and Christie. Make a really good case for any other and I'll order it in time for Uncle Harald.

---

Rating: - Awesome music!
This is music from the angels! Perfect, perfect, perfect is all I can say - you won't be disappointed with this CD. Great to listen to all year, but especially at Christmas.

---

Rating: - Authenticists, stay away!,
While I am not by any means an original instrument/performance purist, even I find myself balking at the leisurely swagger of so many of the tempi adopted here (although Sir Thomas scampers through "For we, like sheep" as if he cannot wait to be rid of the embarrassment of it) and the rather disconcerting woodwind twiddles, flutey noodlings, lush horns and timpani bashings with which the Goossens orchestration (or was it more the work of Beecham himself?) graces us - yet I will readily admit that I really enjoy this rendering of Handel's inexhaustible masterpiece, done con amore as only Beecham could do it. The slow tempi certainly allow a clear articulation and a grandeur of utterance which are not unbecoming to such theologically elevated music.

The soloists are very fine, especially the men; Vickers obviously has a heroic tenor very different from the rather hooty, throaty tenorino so often wheeled out these days for this music (I mention no British tenors whose weedy sound is so inexplicably prized...) and he articulates the recitative with real depth of feeling. Tozzi, likewise, is a tower of strength - you can just luxuriate in the smooth treacle of that bass. The women are stalwarts of that era; fine artists both.

It's not the only "Messiah" you will want to hear; there is room for a less reverential, more animated and generally more lightly sprung interpretation but in many ways it brings you closer to the emotional heart of this music than many an underpowered, chilly and spare "original instruments" version. (Actually, Beecham's orchestra and choir are not that big compared with the Victorian blockbuster style which preceded it; it's just the ponderous tempi and extra orchestration which create an impression of additional weight.)

So buy this - it's very reasonably priced and beautifully recorded for its 1959 provenance - and enjoy it for what it is: Beecham's tribute to a master composer.

---

Rating: - Ornamentated Messiah
If you want a Messiah as big as the planet, but with style, get this famous Beecham version done with romantic ornamentations. It's awesome!

---

Rating: - Beecham's noisy Messiah
Here's the famous Messiah from Thomas Beecham and forces that uses crashing cymbals, enhanced timpani and brass to make it sound like a collusion between classical forces, a rock band and Canadian Brass. Listen to second CD excerpt from "Hallelujah!" for the opening cymbal crash to get an idea of what's going on.

Fans have debated for almost 50 years whether this performance is musically adept, musically correct, an exemplar of the English choral tradition, or just a big old batch of romantic fun at Handel's expense. I first owned this during a time when I also owned a recording Handel's "Royal Fireworks Music" featuring 40 woodwinds. The two made roughly an equal amount of noise.

There isn't much question this performance is completely out of step with the way Handel is performed in most venues today. Check out the wonderful Jon Vickers' highly operatic opening aria, "Comfort ye", then compare that to any leaned-out period group you've heard. You'll get another idea of the dimension of Beecham's project.

While not on the agenda of the Flat Earth Society, the main interest in a performance like this -- especially having to pay for three CDs when just about everyone else puts it on two -- is nostalgia or history, whichever happens to be the case for you.

My personal favorite is Paul McCreesh's version on DG; I also enjoy the 4-CD box of "Messiah" and "Israel In Egypt" where Andrew Parrott leads his Taverner Choir & Players and some of the best early music singers. These are both historic versions that don't directly compete with Beecham or his style. If you like Sir Thomas's high cholesterol romantic approach, you surely will not enjoy the two I recommend.