The Messiah of Handel is an emblematic work that depicts the kind of oratorio that Handel established in England, unlike the others, this one do not have a dramatic topic (where by dramatic I mean an story interpreted by singers as biblical or mythological characters), instead, it is just made of a series of texts that recall meditation.
As hard as it may seem, this oratorio was not intended to be for sacred purposes. It was mainly performed in theaters, and plus, the music does not have much to do with sacred woks of that time. We must notice that Handels oratorios until then, were opera-like works, in which the only part lacking was, the histrionic one.
This version of the Messiah dates from a series of performances in April and May 1751 in London. The features are: 1) The new settings of the arias "But who may abide" and "Thou art gone up on high" sung bay a male alto. 2) The addition of white voices in substitution for the sopranos. 3) The switched in singers to sing the aria " Rejoice, greatly", instead of soprano, a bass, and in the aria "Why do the nations" is sung by a tenor instead of a bass.
Enjoy!
Option 1 Option2
Part1 Part1
Part2 Part2
Part3
This is an outstanding performance of the 1751 version - thank you :)
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for this upload and all your regular works on this blog. I'm very grateful. But you have made a mystake here : in the option 2, part 1's file is posted 2 times. Greetings.
ReplyDeleteNow it's ok :)
ReplyDeleteWonderful ! I will listen to it this evening. Thanks a lot.
ReplyDelete