Handel - Messiah / R?schmann, Gritton, Fink , C. Daniels, N. Davies; McCreesh
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Music CD Cover
Edition: Music CDFormat: Import
CD Release Date: 1997-08-01
Music Label: Polygram Int'l
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Messiah: Part the First (I) - Sinfony (Grave - Allegro moderato)
- Messiah: Part the First (I) - Recitative, Accompanied (Tenor): Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye My People
- Messiah: Part the First (I) - Song (Tenor): Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted
- Messiah: Part the First (I) - Chorus: And The Glory Of The Lord Shall Be Revealed
- Messiah: Part the First (II) - Recitative, Accompanied (Bass): Thus Saith The Lord Of Hosts
- Messiah: Part the First (II) - Song (Soprano II.): But Who May Abide The Day Of His Coming?
- Messiah: Part the First (II) - Chorus: And He Shall Purify The Sons Of Levi
- Messiah: Part the First (III) - Recitative (Contralto): Behold, A Virgin Shall Conceive
- Messiah: Part the First (III) - Song (Contralto) & Chorus: O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings To Zion
- Messiah: Part the First (III) - Recitative, Accompanied (Bass): For Behold, Darkness Shall Cover The Earth
- Messiah: Part the First (III) - Song (Bass): The People That Walked In Darkness
- Messiah: Part the First (III) - Chorus: For Unto Us A Child Is Born
- Messiah: Part the First (IV) - Pifa (Pastoral Symphony)
- Messiah: see Ext. Info
- Messiah: Glory to God in the Highest
- Messiah: Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Sion
- Messiah: Then shall the Eyes of the Blind be open'd
- Messiah: He shall feed his Flock
- Messiah: His Yoke is easy, his Burthen is light
- Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God
- Messiah: He was despised
- Messiah: Surely he hath borne our Griefs
- Messiah: And with His Stripes we are healed
- Messiah: All we, like Sheep, have gone astray
- Messiah: All they that see him laugh him to scorn
- Messiah: He trusted in God
- Messiah: hy Rebuke hath broken his Heart
- Messiah: Behold, and see, if there be any Sorrow
- Messiah: He was cut off out of the Land
- Messiah: But Thou didst not leave his Soul in Hell
- Messiah: Chorus: Lift Up Your Heads, O Ye Gates
- Messiah: Recitative (Tenor): Unto Which Of The Angels Said He At Any Time
- Messiah: Chorus: Let All The Angels Of God Worship Him
- Messiah: Song (Soprano I.): Thou Art Gone Up On High
- Messiah: Chorus: The Lord Gave The Word
- Messiah: Song (Soprano II.): How Beautiful Are The Feet
- Messiah: Chorus: Their Sound Is Gone Out Into All Lands
- Messiah: Song (Bass): Why Do The Nations So Furiously Rage Together
- Messiah: Chorus: Let Us Break Their Bonds Asunder
- Messiah: Recitative (Tenor): He That Dwelleth In Heaven - Song (Tenor): Thou Shalt Break Them With A Rod Of Iron
- Messiah: Chorus: Hallelujah!
- Messiah: Song (Soprano II.): I Know That My Redeemer Liveth
- Messiah: Chorus: Since By Man Came Death
- Messiah: Recitative, Accompanied (Bass): Behold, I Tell You A Mystery
- Messiah: Song (Bass): The Trumpet Shall Sound
- Messiah: Recitative (Contralto): Then Shall Be Brought To Pass
- Messiah: Duet (Contralto & Tenor): O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?
- Messiah: Chorus: But Thanks Be To God
- Messiah: Song (Soprano I.): If God Is For Us
- Messiah: Chours: Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain - Amen
Free Music Notes for Handel - Messiah / R?schmann, Gritton, Fink , C. Daniels, N. Davies; McCreesh
Free Music Review: Maybe my favorite Messiah
Hit: 5 Stars
It's hard to have one favorite for a work with so many diverse challenges and rewards; it's far too big for any one performance. But though I have a dozen or so recordings, this is the Messiah I've had the highest joys-to-frustrations ratio with for the last few years.
Perhaps its strongest point, to my ears, is the technical assurance of the soloists, at no cost to their musicality. The thing that has jarred me most often from my enjoyment of this work is soloists just not quite hitting notes or articulating them cleanly, even with baroque specialists in other well regarded period performances, such as Hogwood and Pinnock. ("I shall shake" may as well be "I shall slide" in most recordings.) I agree with a previous reviewer who observes that McCreesh benefits from the maturity of period performance practices, which made great advances even in the decade leading up to this recording. The soloists here do amazingly well.
As another reviewer pointed out, the chorus is "top-heavy," i.e. biased toward the sopranos, who sound appropriately angelic. I would have been happy to hear more strength and depth in the bass. It may be in part a technical artifact of the recording, or it could be an artistic choice. (Maybe we need to import some Russian basses! But could they sing Handel?) Like the soloists, the chorus is astonishingly technically secure, very musical, and never sounds like it's panting.
The orchestra's playing is very well shaped, exceptionally crisp and nimble but expressively modulated. Indeed, that applies to the singing as well, each note and line lovingly contoured. My only real reservation on the instrumental side, which I notice again at each listening, is that the horn on "The Trumpet Shall Sound" seems too pastoral, too relaxed, too smooth, too legato, rather than sharing the appropriately urgent forcefulness of the vocal soloist. Beautiful but not quite fitting, for my view of what the piece is about.
I enjoy the bracing rhythmic spring of many of the pieces, not breathless or over-punched but appropriately lively. On the other extreme, I understand the complaint I see here about the very slow "He Was Despised," but I find it highly effective. It draws me into the words in a way more typically delivered performances don't, without seeming overly mannered to me. The singing is beautiful. (There are reasons to think the piece was originally intended to be a showpiece for a favorite soloist who had very public reasons to identify with the lyrics.)
Similarly, though I see the cause, I disagree with the reviewer who finds "Comfort Ye" over-interpreted. Again, it works very well for me. I see less cause for the same reviewer's feeling that the soprano singing "He Shall Feed His Flock" has an "uncontrollable" vibrato. To me it sounds tight and finely controlled, beautiful. Some have complained of the contralto's vibrato, which is more pronounced (as in "O Thou that Tellest Good Tidings"), but I think the complaints are overblown. Ms. Fink manages it pretty well. Whether it's "authentic" is a matter of some controversy but of relatively little weight in comparison to other points, I think, such as how well she hits the notes and fits the overall style, which she does very well. She does seem a bit underpowered to me, but only a bit.
This performance leans slightly towards the theatrical, operatic side of the work, which McCreesh calls attention to in his notes. That doesn't make it less devotional, only less staid. I can't say I think every piece hits the sweet spot as to tempo and style. Some do strike me as too light, in particular, though never without some benefits from it. Even with the expressiveness throughout, and great feeling in some parts, I still occasionally long for a fuller measure of passion or forcefulness. I'm not sure there is a single sweet spot for many of the pieces, though, and I'm glad to hear and enjoy the choices made here as well as in other performances that bring out other sides of this great music.
All Handel - Messiah / R?schmann, Gritton, Fink , C. Daniels, N. Davies; McCreesh Free Music Reviews
Handel - Messiah / R?schmann, Gritton, Fink , C. Daniels, N. Davies; McCreesh Poster
You would think that everyone in the world owned a copy of Messiah by now, and that there would certainly be no need to record new ones very year. Wrong! Here's DG's 1997 entry, and it's a fine one too. The only reservation is the recorded sound, which seems to be somewhat congested at the climaxes, as though the chorus and orchestra were recorded in differing acoustic spaces. Otherwise, this is as fine an "authentic" performance as we're likely to get. --David HurwitzClassical Music CDs
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