Handel

I attended a performance of Handel's Messiah with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra and Chorale at the Basilica in Minneapolis. I appreciated many things about the performance, but the space swallowed up any vocal nuance and rendered the sound mushy. Too bad, because it was well done. I made sure I didn't bust out and sing along, although it was hard to resist.

It is true that "my Messiah" is shaped by the recording I've listened to so many times, with Sam Ramey and Kathleen Battle, and Andrew Davis conducting the  Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

The mezzo part was sung by a counter-tenor, who had a lovely voice. This sent me searching for Messiah performances by the amazing German counter-tenor, Andreas Scholl, interviewed here by The Guardian.

Here are some excerpts sung by Scholl:

"But who may abide?"



"O, thou, that tellest good tidings from Zion"


"Behold the lamb of God/He was despised"


and something by Handel that is not from the Messiah: "Ombra mai fu" from the opera Xerxes: