On the performance of "MESSIAH" by the POWERHOUSE CHORUS.

As an ex-musician, I view the limits of the written score on performance of certain types of work as bowing to the composer.

This is not a matter of personal preference, and the revisions to "Messiah" do not include using the "POWERHOUSE CHURCH CHOIR."

Handel wrote for his time, NOT with an "oh, just use what you want to" caveat. He himself altered the CONTENT of the Libretto, but not the voices used for the oratorio. The MASSED CHORUS for "Messiah" was a creation of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. If they wish to perform works in a manner that I as a former pianist believe are not true to the composer, it is, at least for the moment, a "Free Country." After all, the TEXT, not the LIBRETTO is holy writ, so to speak. Massed Chorus could have been used: Beethoven used it for his Choral movement of the 9th Symphony not too many years after Handel's era, but it was not.

I understand the desire of some people to view the composer's score as a "suggestion" other than instructions on how to perform their work, but I on the other hand believe that marks such as "allegro non tropo" mean "sprightly but not too sprightly," NOT "droop down to dead slow if the mood strikes you." This is BAROQUE CLASSICAL

You may listen to the Mormon Tabernacle version all you wish: it is your right. I believe it's WRONG, but you have that right. Try listening to this:

http://www.amazon.com/Handel-Messiah-Watkinson-Elliott-Hogwood/dp/B000004CXU

This is considered the DEFINITIVE performance of the Libretto of "MESSIAH." I think you will agree, especially the tenor Recitative: "Comfort Ye My People/Every Valley Shall Be Exalted" and the first Chorus: "And The Glory Of The Lord." Emma Kirkby's rendition of "But who may abide" which is usually (and wrongly) performed by a bass is nothing less than angelic, and the performance of the Choir of Christ Church Oxford (treble and alto boys) is truly the voice of the angelic choir envisioned by Handel.

There is something to be said for listening to certain music forms the way they are written, and not interpreting them to your taste. This is not the rule: The Goldberg Variations were written for two manual harpsichord, but no one will disparage the performances by Glenn Gould, but they are, as Bach intended, VARIATIONS. I believe ORATORIO is to be performed as it is written.

Shakespeare after all did not say "Friends, Romans and Countrymen, there's something I've gotta tell you."

:rofl:

I'm with you - I do enjoy being in a mass choir singing the Messiah, but the sound is indeed all wrong, and I find the "let's be bombastic!!!" attitude unfitting the music.

On the other hand, as a composer I enjoy hearing people play around with and re-interpret my music. But Baroque was definitely not written, so far as I know, for "interpretation".

A fave of all classically trained musicians.

Couldn't agree more. Handel is NOT Sun Ra. Classical music is not JAZZ.

I think form follows function in more than than the architecture of I. M. Pei.

I tend to agree with you that historically correct (as far as we can assertain)performances are illuminating. It's revealing to strip away years of, what now seems, bizare performance practice.

Speaking of which, I have an old recording of Stokowski and the Philadephia Orchestra doing the Brandenberg Concertos. All of them are done with huge string sections and in a style more attuned to the late Romantic than the Baroque. The best part is in the 2nd concerto. The solo part is taken not by a piccolo trumpet or even a descant horn, but by a soprano saxophone. It takes you by surprise.

My larger point is that while I agree with your feelings about original performance practice, what is considered "correct" is malleable and changes over time. Stokowski's audience probally didn't give a second thought to massed strings for the Brandenberg's. At that time Bach's music was not programed as often and the Brandenberg's themselves were probably a bit of an oddity.

I merely outline my reasoning for a preference, and unless it's truly an obvious and wide variation from the composer's score then the point is just my own.

However, as to being "...malleable..." for changes over time: in the case for "Messiah," The Dublin Foundling Home possesses the actual score of that rendition, both printed and from Handel's own hand from the performance he personally conducted, so I think variation from that theme is not authentic. To use a poor example, it is akin to listing to the Soundtrack of the movie "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" as opposed to the recording by the Beatles and calling it superior or even preferential.

Just another one of the drawbacks to classical training!

Well said!

That disk is one of my favorites. Listening to the Paul Elliott "small voice" versions of "Comfort ye my people" and "Every Valley" make me shake.

I actually feel something similar to an electric shiver just playing them in my HEAD.