Messiah

I seem to have developed a Handel Messiah jones, so my fav shelf is busting out all over. What else is new? That said, new releases of this perennial favorite catch my ear, and eventually my ear if the tracks can be previewed. In this case, I was pretty smitten, right from the first notes of the overture.Conductor Morten Topp leads a lively, involved and very musical performance. I'm betting this is a live concert recording. If the opening overture comes across as committed and stylish, the size of the instrumental band seems comparable to what we are used to finding in, say, a Neville Marriner release with the Academy of Saint Martin's in the Field. The tenor is much better than one expects to hear in a good regional concert. He manages the challenging range of the tenor's opening recitative plus aria, and sounds like he knows and understands what he is singing. He's stylish enough to embellish, discreetly. Then the famous opening chorus arrives, and we immediately hear the main drawback of this particular reading: the choir is larger than the instrumental group, or at least sounds larger, and the chorus is recorded from more of a distance than everybody else. The performance venue sounds like a very large space, probably a church or cathedral? Thus the force and detail of the chorus' mastery takes longer to grip us and convince, both dramatically and musically. Suffice it to say that by the time the middle section arrives (where we are more or less reliving the Passion Week), one's ear has adjusted enough to wish that the singing of the choir were better recorded. I like them, a whole lot; but the large space as it catches and then holds the music almost reaches the positioned microphones, a millisecond faster than the direct music of the choral singers as such. It takes paying close attention to hear all that the chorus is really doing, and once that kind of attention kicks in, a listener may feel the drawback has been overcome enough to do justice to the music and to the performers.The bass baritone soloist is good, too. He has a red walnut burnish to his tone. He has more than enough heft. And, most necessary of all, he has just enough edge in his voice that he does not sound ridiculous when Handel throws some florid runs at him in the recitatives or bass arias. Though his low notes are vivid, it happens that his upper range really rises to baritonal clarity. Up top, he isn't straining as some impressively woodsy low male voices can be in this music. The alto is not the weak link that lower female soloists sometimes turn out to be in many regional concerts. She, too, has tonal weight without becoming over-ripe, and she, too, displays enough edge to reveal the line of the important musical phrases Handel gives to this part. The soprano wraps up the four soloists with welcome substance and musicality. She sounds like she has a larger voice than we might hear when the oratorio is sung by one of those higher female, bell-like voices. She can also manage the fast runs and embellishments that the composer takes as innate to his style.One can hear at times that neither the chorus nor the soloists are idigneous English speakers, whether one is listening for the USA/North American manner or for UK manners. But guess what? So strong is Handel's music and so committed are the performers that one really doesn't mind. Such passing language accents more or less serve as evidence that Handel's Messiah has well nigh universal appeal, across all sorts of different languages, and across all sorts of cultures. Listen to the samples. Make up your own mind. Isn't that what we always do? Happy Holidays, 2015.

All the soloists on this recording have beautiful voices. This is a live performance and there will be the occasional background noises that you hear in a live performance. I find it to be more alive than a studio recording and the background noises don't bother me a bit. I have several Messiah sets and this one will be going to the top of the stack. In fact, I like this orchestra and choir so much that I also bought their Handel Israel in Egypt and Brahms German Requiem.