An old-fashioned "Messiah"
Bob Lombard
the 1985 remastering of the 1959 recording by Ormandy's Philadelphia
Orchestra and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, with soloists Eileen Farrell,
Martha Lipton, Davis Cunningham and William Warfield.
CBS M2K 607 2 CDs
It's all pretty good. The orchestra's string sound is just as one would
expect from that year, and the semi-audibility of the brass is tolerable
because the strings sound so fine (at least that seems to be the
prevailing attitude, so why fight it?). Farrell's voice is clean and
pure; the soloists don't have to yell here, so nobody comes close to
straining anyway. I feel the need to complain a little about Warfield's
effort in those 'huh-huh' semi-stuttering passages; not surprisingly,
the voice control isn't all it could be.
Martha Lipton does a competent, pleasant job in her solos; a very
moderate, short-swing vibrato, and hit every note easily. She doesn't
possess the Ferrier timbres, but I guess there won't ever be another
voice like that one. If Ferrier's vibrato had been more like Lipton's
she would have been too good for this world.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been better recorded than here. Pretty
much a general wash of sound; no spacial imaging or vocal clarity.
In fact, if I have any real complaint with this recording, it's the
absence of a defined sound stage. Listening, I couldn't place any of the
forces in 'my mind's eye'.
Lets see; the recording was made in 1958-1959, and I'm reviewing it in
very late 2008. There is an anachronism here somewhere, and I think I'm it.
bl
david...@aol.com
You need a performance with a massive chorus as it was performed in
the late 18th century in England or a performance with an inauthentic
arrangement like Mozart's. You have to forgive the 18th century: it
hadn't been informed by the HIP movement.
-david gable
td
And a rather good thing.
On Beaver Records the Toronto Symphony under Sir Thomas MacMillan
recorded a Messiah in the early 1950s in the grand old tradition.
Soprano: Lois Marshall
Tenor: Jon Vickers
Now, I have to tell you that if you want the old fashioned Messiah,
this is really a trip down memory lane the likes of which we cannot
find today. Alas.
Never reissued in any format known to man. It did appear on RCA Victor
I think, but it originated on Beaver Records.
Those were the days.
Incidentally, I do believe that a young pianist by the name of Glenn
Gould also recorded for Beaver.
TD
Thornhill
wrote:
>
> In fact, if I have any real complaint with this recording, it's the
> absence of a defined sound stage. Listening, I couldn't place any of the
> forces in 'my mind's eye'.
The result of CBS "remastering"
JohnGavin
I don't think I can really enjoy a massive chorus anymore in Handel or
Bach - this has nothing to do with scholarship - I've just come to
like the lightness and airiness of smaller numbers - it suits the
music more closely IMHO.
Simon Roberts
david...@aol.com says...
Since HIPsters have recorded Messiah with a massive chorus a la late 18th
Century England at least once, and in Mozart's arrangement at least twice, your
point isn't entirely clear.
Simon
Mike
>
> The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been better recorded than here. Pretty
> much a general wash of sound; no spacial imaging or vocal clarity.
>
> In fact, if I have any real complaint with this recording, it's the
> absence of a defined sound stage. Listening, I couldn't place any of the
> forces in 'my mind's eye'.
>
> bl
Back in undergraduate school (in Missoula, Montana) as I was starting
to get seriously interested in classical music, you wouldn't believe
how many people went out of their way to recommend, no, to push the
MTC on me as the "epitome" (some said "penultimate," just as some
ignorant types do today) of what the best choral singing should be and
sound like. In particular, they'd trot out the Columbia LPs of this
recording and go immediate to the "Hallalejuah Chorus," grinning
euphorically in anticipation of my agreeing with them. Even in my
classical-neophyte days, I could sense that something wasn't right, so
I usually said something like, "Yeah, great sound." The MTC struck me
then almost as much as now as a bunch of sincere, very nice and
wholesome people who sounded best in a glop of homogenzed sound (so
the inadequacies of individuals and individual sections wouldn't be
noticeable, I now realize), singing in the most plodding, foursquare
manner possible. I didn't know about such glories as the B-minor
Mass' Sanctus or contrapuntal singing and the like at the time, but I
cringe today thinking about what that elephantine-sized group would do
to it. Seeing this post brought back memories...including the
aphorism about "the MTC played Handel...Handel lost."
Kip Williams
> Back in undergraduate school (in Missoula, Montana) as I was starting
> to get seriously interested in classical music, you wouldn't believe
> how many people went out of their way to recommend, no, to push the
> MTC on me as the "epitome" (some said "penultimate," just as some
> ignorant types do today) of what the best choral singing should be and
> sound like. In particular, they'd trot out the Columbia LPs of this
> recording and go immediate to the "Hallalejuah Chorus," grinning
> euphorically in anticipation of my agreeing with them.
This brings to mind the episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati" where somebody
puts on an LP of the "Hallelujah Tabernacle Choir" singing "You're
Having My Baby." First, the male voices sing "You're having our baby..."
and then the females come back with "We're having your baby! We're a
woman in love and we love what it's doing to us..."
Classic. So to speak.
Kip W
Ralph
Since the HIP movement is here to stay, and there will be no restoration
of the varnish to pre-Mozart music in any meaningful way, wouldn't it
be better to make peace with it?
Ralph
A. Brain
news:gj8qk...@drn.newsguy.com...
I assume that Simon refers to recordings such as
one or two by Hogwood with the Handel and Haydn
Society, and the Dorati one I mentioned recently in another
thread. But I think David refers to HIP as implicitly
referring to "original" forces, as in those likely to
have been in use in performances contemporaneous
with the composer, not just those performances that
are "historical" by virtue of remoteness in time.
So according to the skimpy notes accompanying
the Dorati, the huge forces at the 1784 Westminster
Abbey performance are approximated in the chorus
anyway, but this was some thirty-five years after
the composer died. On the other hand, if there is
evidence that Handel would have liked bigger forces,
or jazzed-up arrangements, as presumably Beethoven
would have approved of the modern piano, and Bach
really wanted someone to perform his B Minor Mass,
then I guess the larger forces would be within the
term "HIP", right?
The music of Bach's wonderful chorus "Gratias
Agimus Tibi" in the B Minor is brought back
to end the B Minor in "Dona Nobis Pacem".
Does anyone in a recording or performance
tradition reprise the Hallelujah chorus to end "Messiah"
or maybe just before the Amen? I've always
found the "Worthy is the Lamb" pretty weak
by comparison.
--
A. Brain
Remove NOSPAM for email.
A. Brain
news:93b3586d-a8e3-44b1...@t26g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
I don't think I have ever heard this, but doubt that
I would like it. THIRD EAR GUIDE refers to it
as a "stylistic horror". Surely the version by Beecham
or the critically acclaimed Andrew Davis is the one
to have if an "old-fashioned" version is sought.
Did the MTC ever record the Bach B Minor?
So what is the counterpart of the Ormandy
Messiah in the Bach B Minor? Klemperer?
The Historian
> "Mike" <m3m3r...@gmail.com> wrote in message
There's a disc of Bach choruses that, if I recall correctly, had an
excerpt from the B Minor Mass.
The Historian
> the 1985 remastering of the 1959 recording by Ormandy's Philadelphia
> Orchestra and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, with soloists Eileen Farrell,
> Martha Lipton, Davis Cunningham and William Warfield.
>
> CBS M2K 607 2 CDs
>
> It's all pretty good. The orchestra's string sound is just as one would
> expect from that year, and the semi-audibility of the brass is tolerable
> because the strings sound so fine (at least that seems to be the
> prevailing attitude, so why fight it?). Farrell's voice is clean and
> pure; the soloists don't have to yell here, so nobody comes close to
> straining anyway. I feel the need to complain a little about Warfield's
> effort in those 'huh-huh' semi-stuttering passages; not surprisingly,
> the voice control isn't all it could be.
>
> Martha Lipton does a competent, pleasant job in her solos; a very
> moderate, short-swing vibrato, and hit every note easily. She doesn't
> possess the Ferrier timbres, but I guess there won't ever be another
> voice like that one. If Ferrier's vibrato had been more like Lipton's
> she would have been too good for this world.
>
> The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been better recorded than here. Pretty
> much a general wash of sound; no spacial imaging or vocal clarity.
I believe I've read somewhere that the MTC was dubbed in later and
recorded in a different hall, which explains some of the sonic
problems of the recording.
The Historian
Has this recording been remastered since 1985? Remastering has come a
long way since the mid 1980s.
Roland van Gaalen
<david...@aol.com> schreef in bericht
news:4e5eeba5-a3a4-42c0...@g38g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...
Point of information -- do you mean late 19th century?
In any case, I would be very interested to be informed how this piece was
performed during the 18th and 19th centuries.
--
Roland van Gaalen
Amsterdam
r.p.vangaalenATchello.nl
Thornhill
I believe the current CD version is the original 1980s CD release.
Simon Roberts
says...
>
>
><david...@aol.com> schreef in bericht
>news:4e5eeba5-a3a4-42c0...@g38g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> You need a performance with a massive chorus as it was performed in
>> the late 18th century in England or a performance with an inauthentic
>> arrangement like Mozart's. You have to forgive the 18th century: it
>> hadn't been informed by the HIP movement.
>>
>> -david gable
>
>Point of information -- do you mean late 19th century?
He surely means what he wrote - there were "Festival" performances of Messiah in
England after Handel's death which used very large choirs and orchestras, even
by today's standards (though not on the scale of, say, concerts in the Crystal
Palace in the late 19th Century).
Simon
Simon Roberts
Brain says...
>
>"Simon Roberts" <sd...@comcast.net> wrote in message
>news:gj8qk...@drn.newsguy.com...
>> In article
>> <4e5eeba5-a3a4-42c0...@g38g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>,
>> david...@aol.com says...
>>>
>>>
>>>You need a performance with a massive chorus as it was performed in
>>>the late 18th century in England or a performance with an inauthentic
>>>arrangement like Mozart's. You have to forgive the 18th century: it
>>>hadn't been informed by the HIP movement.
>>
>> Since HIPsters have recorded Messiah with a massive chorus a la late
>> 18th
>> Century England at least once, and in Mozart's arrangement at least
>> twice, your
>> point isn't entirely clear.
>>
>
>
>I assume that Simon refers to recordings such as
>one or two by Hogwood with the Handel and Haydn
>Society, and the Dorati one I mentioned recently in another
>thread. But I think David refers to HIP as implicitly
>referring to "original" forces, as in those likely to
>have been in use in performances contemporaneous
>with the composer, not just those performances that
>are "historical" by virtue of remoteness in time.
I think he's just took aim at HIPsters in general and, as usual, missed.
As for putting Hallelujah at the end, no, I don't think that would be an
improvement; to these ears, the end of the "Amen" chorus is as thrilling a
conclusion to a work as anyone ever wrote.
I did, however, once hear Hallelujah imported out of context: one December in
the late 70s Hogwood gave a concert in St John's Smith Sq which consisted of the
Eb version of Bach's Magnificat and the Chrismas music from Messiah. After the
latter had ended, Hogwood turned to the audience and said something like "you
were probably hoping to hear the Hallelujah chorus, weren't you? Well,
unfortunately, that ends Part II...." He promptly turned around and conducted
it as an encore.
Simon
Simon Roberts
Brain says...
>So what is the counterpart of the Ormandy
>Messiah in the Bach B Minor? Klemperer?
Not the complete Klemperer recording, which was, by the standards of when it was
recorded, small-scale (much-reduced orchestra, chamber-sized choir); Klemperer
evidently came to believe that the piece didn't work well will "standard"
forces, which I think is why he abandoned his first recording of the work (all
the choruses were recorded and appeared commercially for the first time on a
Testament CD; as the choir is far superior to the BBC Singers on the complete
recording, I much prefer what's left of his first attempt). Among stereo
recordings I've heard, the closest to Ormandy's Messiah is probably Karajan/DG.
Simon
Roland van Gaalen
news:gjblj...@drn.newsguy.com...
Thank you for clarifying that -- I didn't know that.
Simon Roberts
says...
>
>"Simon Roberts" <sd...@comcast.net> schreef in bericht
>news:gjblj...@drn.newsguy.com...
>> In article <3638e$4958dc06$3ea3beea$22...@news.chello.nl>, Roland van
>> Gaalen
>> says...
>>>
>>>
>>><david...@aol.com> schreef in bericht
>>>news:4e5eeba5-a3a4-42c0...@g38g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...
>>>>
>>>> You need a performance with a massive chorus as it was performed in
>>>> the late 18th century in England or a performance with an inauthentic
>>>> arrangement like Mozart's. You have to forgive the 18th century: it
>>>> hadn't been informed by the HIP movement.
>>>>
>>>> -david gable
>>>
>>>Point of information -- do you mean late 19th century?
>>
>> He surely means what he wrote - there were "Festival" performances of
>> Messiah in
>> England after Handel's death which used very large choirs and orchestras,
>> even
>> by today's standards (though not on the scale of, say, concerts in the
>> Crystal
>> Palace in the late 19th Century).
>>
>
>Thank you for clarifying that -- I didn't know that.
I don't know whether it was ever released outside the US (where I'm pretty sure
it's long out of print anyway) but Dorati's recording from the early 80s was an
attempt at recreating such a performance - vast choir, very large orchestra
using period instruments (including some decidedly strange timpani) and a rather
starry team of soloists led by Edith Mathis:
Simon
Bob Harper
(snip)
> As for putting Hallelujah at the end, no, I don't think that would be an
> improvement; to these ears, the end of the "Amen" chorus is as thrilling a
> conclusion to a work as anyone ever wrote.
>
> Simon
>
Agreed, absolutely. Someone earlier in the thread had some quibbles
about 'Worthy is the Lamb'. I couldn't agree less. From the moment those
words are sung right through to the end of the 'Amen' is some of the
greatest music for chorus and orchestra ever composed.
Bob Harper
Peter Greenstein
"Terry" <bo...@clown.invalid> wrote in message
news:0001HW.C57F31F2...@news.tpg.com.au...
> On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:31:44 +1100, Bob Lombard wrote
> (in article <IRN5l.27757$9i5....@en-nntp-07.dc1.easynews.com>):
> "Messiah" I
> reach for the Boult/Decca, with Kenneth McKellar, Grace Bumbry, Dame
> Joan
> Sutherland and David Ward, or the Scherchen/Westminster with Pierette
> Alarie, Nan Merriman, Leopold Simoneau and Richard Standen.
>
> (Actually, the Boult seemed a bit HIP when it first came out.)
>
> --
> Cheers!
>
> Terry
Boult Retro HIP?
Compared to Sargent (who never thought a chorus could be too large!) Boult
may have had a somewaht smaller scale of sound in his first Messiah
recording (mono). But I'm so sure if I could say that about the second Boult
recording. Both Boult performances had many slow tempi, but the resonant
stereo sound of the second seemed to make it sound heavier and grander. In
spite of a sluggish finale I do like the glorious sound of much of it and
the operatic soloists. However, I do have a slight preference for Boult's
earlier recording.
Were you thinking of Scherchen? My father bought the first Scherchen (also
in mono) when it came out and he told me that the critics at the time called
it an early attempt at small scale performing forces.
--
peter in oakland,ca.
www.wakefieldjazz.com
Brendan R. Wehrung
There used to be a 2-disc Koch set of early recordings of Messiah excerpts
that's as close as we are going to come. And, of course, one of my
favorite complete recordings, Beecham's of 1927.
Brendan
A. Brain
news:omh6l.40112$9i5....@en-nntp-07.dc1.easynews.com...
Much as I love the whole piece, I guess I have some
problems with some of the text in "Worthy..." as well
as in other numbers. I'm less dissatisfied with the "Amen",
but for me the best number in the whole thing is the
Hallelujah chorus and it's worth a revisit in some form.
Bach's "Dona nobis pacem" in the B Minor Mass is
a much more impressive closing, I think. And while
I am a huge Handel fan, I find a lot more joy and
profundity in Bach's sacred music.
Roland van Gaalen
news:gjcg2u$623$1...@theodyn.ncf.ca...
> "Roland van Gaalen" (SeeSig...@DeadSpam.Com) writes:
>> <david...@aol.com> schreef in bericht
>> news:4e5eeba5-a3a4-42c0...@g38g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...
>>>
>>> You need a performance with a massive chorus as it was performed in
>>> the late 18th century in England or a performance with an inauthentic
>>> arrangement like Mozart's. You have to forgive the 18th century: it
>>> hadn't been informed by the HIP movement.
>>>
>>> -david gable
>>
>> Point of information -- do you mean late 19th century?
>> In any case, I would be very interested to be informed how this piece was
>> performed during the 18th and 19th centuries.
>
> that's as close as we are going to come. And, of course, one of my
> favorite complete recordings, Beecham's of 1927.
That's my favorite! -- on the other hand, I can't stand the much better
known and famous (?) Beecham recording of the 1950s.
Johannes Roehl
> "Bob Harper" <bob.h...@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:omh6l.40112$9i5....@en-nntp-07.dc1.easynews.com...
>> Simon Roberts wrote:
>> (snip)
>>> As for putting Hallelujah at the end, no, I don't think that would be
>>> an
>>> improvement; to these ears, the end of the "Amen" chorus is as
>>> thrilling a
>>> conclusion to a work as anyone ever wrote.
>>>
>> about 'Worthy is the Lamb'. I couldn't agree less. From the moment
>> those words are sung right through to the end of the 'Amen' is some of
>> the greatest music for chorus and orchestra ever composed.
>
> Much as I love the whole piece, I guess I have some
> problems with some of the text in "Worthy..." as well
> as in other numbers. I'm less dissatisfied with the "Amen",
> but for me the best number in the whole thing is the
> Hallelujah chorus and it's worth a revisit in some form.
While I like several choruses, of course the Halleluja, but also the
final chorus, my favorite numbers in Messiah are all solo pieces. I love
almost all of them, starting with the very first recitative and aria,
but also "The people that walked in darkness", "Rejoice greatly", "He
was despised", "Why do the heathen", "I know that my redeemer liveth".
There may be more powerful and dramatic choruses in Israel in Egypt and
Saul, more festive ones in Solomon and elsewhere, but the solo numbers
are outstanding throughout in Messiah, with only a few less remarkable
pieces.
Johannes
jon.b...@yale.edu
original 1950s Boult recording of Handel's Messiah:
A recent reference to Sir Adrian Boult's 1960s stereo recording of
Handel's Messiah with Joan Sutherland took me back to Boult's original
mono recording of Handel's score, c. 1953. Listen anew to the 1960s
recording, I remembered Boult's earlier recording as more lithe and
less boxy and cumbersome.
But was this correct? I quickly realized that, of course, for
whatever reason I no longer had the original. Fortunately an internet
check produced a copy at Cyrco (for about $7.50 for 4 LPs; the
shipping was, of course, double that). It was, in fact, the original
release in an overlong London box with 4 of those thick red-seal
London "FFRR" LPs. For $7.50, they weren't in terrible shape, though
two discs had sat a little too close to a radiator at some point since
they were slightly warped at the edge, though not impossible to play.
Impressions are, of course, subjective; but listening to the Boult
mono LPs confirmed all my memories. This was a simply superb Messiah,
all the more so for its time. We can find amusement now in the
headline on the London box, "from the original manuscript," since we
know now that there were numerous versions of the Messiah that Handel
himself assembled. And Boult's tempos were generally slower than
either HIP or non-HIP performances adopt together. But they weren't
lethargic. The sound was more than adequate, especially in the rather
sweet sounding strings. Boult used a modest sized but not tiny chorus
that sang beautifully. The recording and the album notes emphasized
the importance of the harpsichord in the score and of the soloist in
the recording, George Malcolm. The vocal soloists were superb.
Jennifer Vyvyan had a bell-like voice with just the slightest edge
that carried her phrasing beautifully. Norma Proctor was a full-
voiced contralto, perhaps not Kathleen Ferrier but unerringly musical.
Owen Brannigan wasn't Bryn Terfel, but he was better than many other
basses who've sung the Messiah. Yet perhaps the real star, in
addition to Vyvyan and Proctor, was George Maran, whose lyric tenor
voice and superb technique contrasted stunningly with the stentorian
tenors who have blasted their way through recordings of "Every Valley"
before and after Boult's. Maran's "Comfort Ye" and "Every Valley" plus
Vyvyan's "I Know that My Redeemer Liveth" (the latter followed by the
superbly sung chorus "Since by Man Came Death)" summarize Boult's
approach--lyrical, precise, subtly phrased, uncannily integrated.
What comes through especially is the stunning detail, phrasing, and
consistency of Boult's effort with soloists, orchestra, and chorus.
The recording bears an exceptional sense of the whole yet where each
part is wonderfully executed. Whereas the stereo remake has some
terrific parts (Sutherland actually often is quite good), it seems
more piecemeal and disconnected. Above all, the mono version bears an
extraordinarily subtle musicality and, if my memory serves right, was
seen as such when it appeared, this in contrast to the recordings that
used larger orchestras and huge choruses (e.g., Sir Malcolm Sargent's
several efforts).
This isn't to say that several recordings of the last decade aren't
"better." Rather, it's to say that the Boult recording looked forward
with exceptional daring, not only in predicting future HIP efforts but
in its attention to the Messiah as a musical score rather than bloated
public spectacle.
As it turns out, I've subsequently discovered that the original Boult
Messiah *IS* available on CD, though I think not in the U.S. It is on
Belart 461 629-2, licensed from London Records, and is available from
some stores in both Canada and Great Britain, usually for less than
$15 for 3 CDs (the 3rd CD contains Part III of the Messiah plus a set
of Handel arias sung by Kenneth McKellar, who was the tenor in Boult's
stereo remake). I don't have the expertise to say anything about the
CD transfer except that it seems adequate, without bearing any claim
that it's been "remastered" in some spectacular fashion; and it is in
real mono, not fake stereo.
Jon Butler
Peter Greenstein
<jon.b...@yale.edu> wrote in message
news:9901642f-7e14-4f31...@b41g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
>I apologize for the tedium, but below is a post I made in 2005 on the
> original 1950s Boult recording of Handel's Messiah:
>
> >
> mono LPs confirmed all my memories. This was a simply superb Messiah,
> all the more so for its time.
Yes, suberb is the word. By the end it leaves one with a great impression,
and this doesn't quite happen for me with Boult II.
We can find amusement now in the
> headline on the London box, "from the original manuscript," since we
> know now that there were numerous versions of the Messiah that Handel
> himself assembled.
I forgot that Boult did NOT go along with all those colorful woodwind
addtions that Sargent and others had used, (probably from Mozart via Prout?)
so Boult really was HIP for his time!
And Boult's tempos were generally slower than
> either HIP or non-HIP performances adopt together. But they weren't
> lethargic.
Here I have to slightly disagree in that many of Boult's tempi are pretty
slow for my taste but otherwise I totally agree with all your comments.
Great post, well worth reading again!
A. Brain
news:9901642f-7e14-4f31...@b41g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
[snip]
> As it turns out, I've subsequently discovered that the original Boult
> Messiah *IS* available on CD, though I think not in the U.S. It is on
> Belart 461 629-2, licensed from London Records, and is available from
> some stores in both Canada and Great Britain, usually for less than
> $15 for 3 CDs (the 3rd CD contains Part III of the Messiah plus a set
> of Handel arias sung by Kenneth McKellar, who was the tenor in Boult's
> stereo remake). I don't have the expertise to say anything about the
> CD transfer except that it seems adequate, without bearing any claim
> that it's been "remastered" in some spectacular fashion; and it is in
> real mono, not fake stereo.
I think I had this in my cart at MDT, mainly for the
McKellar arias, which I once had on cassette and
wore out. The "Belart" mid-price series never seems
to have reached our shores.
Peter Greenstein
"Terry" <bo...@clown.invalid> wrote in message
>
> the
> recording to which I referred was in stereo. The booklet that comes with
> this
> set makes reference to a 1954 mono recording Scherchen made in London, as
> follows:
>
> "The transparent textures and often unusual tempi of this first uncut
> recording of the work ensured that it caused something of a stir at the
> time
> and met with an enthusiastic response on the part of critics and public
> alike."
>
> I haven't heard that earlier recording.
>
> --
> Cheers!
>
> Terry
Yes, "cheers" to all. I hope everybody had fun last night. Lots of
old-timey music and modern jazz at our party, but if I had stayed in it
might have been a solitary listening with "The Messiah", what a great, great
piece! I don't care what everybody else here says about there other favorite
oratorios.
Anyway Terry, I guess I've never heard that stereo Scherchen "Messiah." I
guess over the years there had been some difference of opinion among the
critics about his two recordings (the first was in London, the second in
Vienna?) and I just stayed with that first one. Now you have got me thinking
it's time to give Scherchen's second recording a serious listen.
I can never have too many recordings of the work!
operafan
and choral forces are much smaller than those on other recordings
made in that era, but the performance is awful. The singers don't have
appealing voices to my ear and are sorely taxed by rapid passages. The
chorus members sound like they are in their 80's and don't blend very
well. Scherchen's tempi can also be eccentric. For example, the piece
ends with the slowest amen chorus ever... It sound more like a sad
goodbye, which can hardly be what Handel had in mind, given the
context.
Peter Greenstein
"operafan" <Peter....@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d2c39a70-0d41-4553...@v39g2000pro.googlegroups.com...
The "Amen" is rather extreme. I agree, it's not to my taste either.
'Eccentric' was Scherchen's middle name, but a great conductor and
fascinating in everything he did.
peter