Messiah - George Frideric Handel, Dublin Version 1742

Handel, 1742 Dublin version- superb!

If you like Messiah, you won't be disappointed. A breath of fresh air, superb singing and playing on original instruments. A classic in its own right. Highly recommended. January 14, 2008

The best Messiah!

The performance has a bright, clean lively approach that others can't compare with. The Arias and Choral passages are present and clear with spot-on articulation and tone. The orchestra has a remarkable presence and power. Overall the recording quality is remarkable. There is one downfall to the recording... a low-frequency hum (rumble) that is present throughout the entire recording. This is minimized by turning down the subwoofer or lowering the 40hz and below frequencies in EQ.

This has become my favorite Messiah performance. Stellar on all counts. December 31, 2007

CHARMING BIRTH, PASSIONLESS PASSION

OK. The "authentic instrumentation" project always gives us new insights into familiar works. BUT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. This highly lauded recording is everything that you have heard. It is brilliantly recorded, with light voices and instrumentation that allow us to see each strand of Handel's splendid counterpoint. It is a truly charming Messiah. But is Messiah supposed to be charming? What makes Messiah or Giulio Cesare so impressive is Handel's ability to adapt his technical skills in orchestral and vocal writing to a dramatic situation. And for all its attention to authenticity of instrumentation and performance style, this performance shows little interest in authentically reproducing the spiritual awe and jubilation that would accompany any eighteenth-century performance of the Christ story. This is not a theological objection; what is missing, one hopes, is not sincerity but imagination. It is perhaps too much to long for the inspired intensity of Heddle Nash, Kathleen Ferrier, Peter Pears or Janet Baker. But is it too much to ask for the simple honesty of Jennifer Vyvyan or Emma Kirby? The tidings are not all that glad in this passionless account and the angel rejoices well but not greatly. The limitation is clearest in the chorus, which sounds pretty and well trained but is led by its conductor into a clipped style more appropriate to Gilbert and Sullivan. Here God and Christ inspire no more awe than the ghosts of Ruddigore. If you wish to hear every note of Handel's score clearly and accurately recorded, this may be your recording. But for those who look for dramatic conviction, be forewarned. This is Biedermeier Handel, as quaintly inauthentic in its way as Beecham's bombast. December 19, 2007

Surprisingly average

On the surface, it seemed that this recording should be interesting because of its use of the smallest choir possible for Handel's Messiah. (3 sops, 4 altos, 3 tenors, 3 bass).

The strange thing is that it doesn't sound like a chamber group but a choir 2 to 3 times its size. It lacks the the elegant qualities of an intimate chamber choir. In fact the overall impression is somewhat lackluster.

The adult mixed soloists are drawn from the members of the Scotland's Dunedin Consort small choir under the direction of John Butt. The tenor, Nicholas Mulroy has an earthy vocal timbre, which is not as refined as his colleagues and therefore mismatched.

The choir on the whole sings very well although some vibrato slips through in the sopranos choruses which can be distracting.

Not a bad performance. It still does not displace the twenty year old recording my John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Chorus on Philips which has even more of a "chamber choir" feel and a buoyant phrasing which makes it still the top of my recommendation for Messiah. December 4, 2007

Messiah lite has charms, but lacks impact

After a one-voice-to-a-part Matthew's Passion we now have an original Dublin Version Messiah, with a 12-voice chorus (less than half the number singing in Dublin, that is), and chorus-members taking all the solos. The orchestra has 15 string players, and does without the oboes, horns and bassoons found in the much more often recorded Foundling Hospital version.
Such an approach may serve different purposes. For one, it allows us to hear this legendary work more or less as it must have sounded at its very first performance. Furthermore, the small ensemble guarantees clarity and transparency. Maybe, too, doing away with `superficial' orchestral and choral spectacle is meant to suggest a deeper level of spirituality or a sense of the `sacred'. Ironically, however the deliberate intimacy can sound just as much as a contrived way of making an effect as a full orchestral panoply can.
Let me say, however, that this recording by the Dunedin Consort has much going for it. Excellent, perfectly coordinated singing and playing from all involved. Appealing lightness. An unforced, mellow approach free from the overemphatic accents or wilful aberrations found in some other versions (like that of McCreesh, which pairs moments of sheer brilliance to infuriating exaggerations). All this recorded with great clarity in the sympathetic acoustic of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh.
But. On repeated listening I was bothered by a nagging sense of monotony. The contrast between choral and solo numbers is much reduced, and the former don't have the impact I would want them to have, not even the Hallelujah, Worthy is the Lamb, or Amen (though on first hearing the close-up recording may trick you into believing otherwise). There is beauty, transparency, joy, but not grandeur or awe. The relaxed approach regarding phrasing and accents takes away a sense of drive and tension. The accompaniment, with the harpsichord much to the fore, at times sounds rather matter-of-fact (for instance, I was struck by the amount of varied expression and tenderness of Pinnock's strings in 'For unto us', compared to the rather more academic approach heard here; or compare the marvellously sinister and atmospheric 'For behold, darkness shall cover the earth' in Hogwood's reading to the again far more literal approach taken here - nor is Dunedin's Matthew Brooke a match for the gloriously rounded bass of David Thomas). I find that in the end this is a perfect living-room Messiah, that can well play in the background without distracting you from your newspaper; - as opposed to one that compels you to be involved, and truly transports you to higher spheres. Pinnock Handel - Messiah / Augér, von Otter, Chance, Crook, Tomlinson, English Concert, Pinnock is still my first choice for that.
November 17, 2007

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