When December comes around each year, people invariably look for a performance of Handel's oratorio Messiah to attend in order to help them get into the Christmas spirit. It's about as grand a tradition as Christmas itself, really, although it was originally premiered at Easter, not Christmas.
Handel wrote the oratorio in three weeks between August and September of 1741, and it premiered at the New Music Hall in Dublin on April 13th of 1742. It remains one of his most popular works, with the celebrated "Hallelujah Chorus" king amongst the selections included in the lengthy work.
It makes good economic sense, therefore, for many professional and amateur choirs alike to program the work prior to Christmas as a guaranteed crowd-pleaser and yes, money-maker as well. It is not often a performance of Messiah doesn't sell out. Such is the attraction of this perennial favourite.
If you are looking for your Messiah fix this month, you can of course try to beg, borrow or steal tickets to the biggie with the Toronto Symphony and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in Toronto, or you could attend the smaller, more intimate-sounding Tafelmusik performances, both of which are annual draws in the Toronto area. But there are other options available, and all of them are guaranteed to please this holiday season.
Right here in Niagara, Chorus Niagara presents their Messiah every other year, with Artistic Director Robert Cooper wisely deciding to alternate years with other Christmas presentations in order not to wear out the Messiah magic. That's a good move, although for many, Messiah every year is just part of the season, no matter what.
The Chorus Niagara presentation of Messiah is this weekend, in fact, with one performance this evening at 7:30 at Mountainview Church in Grimsby and Sunday afternoon at 2:30 at Calvary Church in St. Catharines. The chorus performs with orchestra, of course, and the weekend concerts are sponsored by Peter & Janet Partridge. Chorus Niagara asks audience members to bring donations of non-perishable food items for Community Care and the Grimsby Benevolent Fund.
Tickets will be hard to come by, but you can try the Brock box office at 905-688-5550, ext. 3257, or contact any Chorus Niagara member for tickets as well.
Also this weekend, the Elora Festival Singers directed by Noel Edison present their annual A Village Messiah at St. Joseph's Church in nearby Fergus, Ontario Sunday afternoon at 3 pm. Their version is smaller in scale, but just as enjoyable with a first-rate chorus and exceptional soloists. For tickets, call the Elora Festival box office at 1-519-846-0331 or 1-888-747-7550, or go to www.elorafestival.com.
In Guelph, meantime, the Guelph Chamber Choir holds their annual Messiah performance closer to Christmas, with a single performance at the River Run Centre in downtown Guelph on Saturday evening, December 20th at 7:30 pm. The choir performs with the Musica Viva Orchestra on period instruments.
Tickets are available through the River Run box office by calling 1-519-763-3000 or 1-877-520-2408, or go to www.riverrun.ca.
The Guelph Chamber Choir also performs a Messiah Sing-a-Long if you are so inclined, Sunday afternoon, December 21st at 3 pm at St. George's Anglican Church in downtown Guelph, and tickets should be available through the same numbers as above as well as at the door.
I attended a Sing-a-Long Messiah with Tafelmusik years ago in Toronto, singing baritone, of course, and it is a great experience you should have at least once in your life. I also attended two Messiah performances in a single day once, too, attending the Chorus Niagara performance on a Sunday afternoon and the Guelph Chamber Choir performance in the evening. I wouldn't recommend anyone attempt that, mind you!
So what if you want a great recording of Messiah for your listening pleasure at home? There are lots available, both new and old and at several price-points, ranging from a basic Naxos set at about $ 30 to the Archiv set with Paul McCreesh directing for considerably more coin. Tafelmusik released their full-length Messiah a couple of years ago on their own label, on two discs. And a new release by French conductor Emmanuelle Haim and Le Concert D'Astree with four of Britain's top soloists is being billed as a must-hear release this season.
For me, I love almost any recording of Messiah, be it period or modern-instrument performance, but two I listened to this week are worth mention in this space, although only one is still commercially available.
Years ago I acquired the classic Toronto Symphony Orchestra recording from 1952 with Sir Ernest MacMillan conducting, along with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and soloists Lois Marshall, Mary Palmateer, John Vickers and James Milligan, released on Beaver Records. Yes, it is an LP set, and save for a single-disc reissue of highlights about 20 years ago, this complete recording has never made it on to CD.
While it is not period instrument in any sense of the word, it is still of historic significance due to the ambitiousness of the project at the time, and the fact MacMillan got some pretty talented singers for the recording sessions, both well-known and up-and-coming. The recording is quirky, especially given what was left out and what was left in, but it is nice to hear nonetheless.
I had my old LP set transferred to CD by my good friend Bruce Jackson so I could finally hear the set, and while the surface noise is quite prevalent, the generally fine performances shine through. Too bad this has never reappeared in any form all these years, but we can hope someday it might just.
So what recording do I most often come back to, you ask? You're going to laugh when you hear which one, but I must admit it is still stirring to listen to after all these years.
In 1959, British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham gathered together the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus and soloists Jennifer Vyvyan, Monica Sinclair, Jon Vickers and Giorgio Tozzi for a wonderfully archaic set released on RCA Victor. It did make it on to CD, both as a single-disc of highlights and the full-blown 3-disc box set years ago, and I have both in my collection.
Now please understand. This is not a Messiah for the feint-of-heart nor the period-instrument enthusiast. Heck, this is not a Messiah historically informed in any sense of the word. But it is still a wonderful experience to listen to every now and again.
In a way, this Messiah represents everything wrong about Messiah performances during the first half of the last century, which were usually modern-instrument monstrosities utilizing far more instrumentation than Handel himself every envisioned. The use of much more brass, percussion and way too many strings would make most listeners today cringe in embarrassment, however in its day this was the way we heard Messiah.
Yet for me, this recording holds a certain, um, charm to it that cannot be denied. Beecham brings the full force of a huge orchestra and chorus to bear in a large acoustic setting that still sounds breathtaking for its clarity over half-a-century after it was recorded. Yes, the pace is ponderous much of the time, but other times the forces unleash a fury of sound such as in the celebrated Hallelujah Chorus that still sends a chill up and down my spine when I hear it.
The best way to describe this recording compared to modern-day Messiahs? Think of yourself now jumping into your Toyota Prius to run down to the natural health-food store compared to 1959 when you borrowed your dad's chrome-laden Buick to pick up the cutest girl at school for a prom date. That's the difference here: you can't go home again, but damn you can enjoy those memories and smile while doing so!
With the exception of the old Toronto Symphony set I described earlier, most every Messiah performance you can imagine is still available, and I can order any and all for you through my website at www.finemusic.ca, or just email your request to me directly at music@vaxxine.com.
And don't forget to stand during the Hallelujah Chorus.
Happy listening!
December 6th, 2014.
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