Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Messiah: Overture - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
2. Messiah: Recit: Comfort Ye, My People (Tenor) - Jon Vickers
3. Messiah: Air: Every Valley Shall Be Exalted (Tenor) - Jon Vickers
4. Messiah: Chorus: And The Glory Of The Lord - John McCarthy
5. Messiah: Recit: Thus Saith The Lord Of Hosts (Bass) - Giorgio Tozzi
6. Messiah: Air: But Who May Abide (Bass) - Giorgio Tozzi
7. Messiah: Chorus: And He Shall Purify - John McCarthy
8. Messiah: Recit: Behold, A Virgin Shall Conceive (Contralto) - Monica Sinclair
9. Messiah: Air & Chorus: O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings (Contralto) - John McCarthy
10. Messiah: Recit: For, Behold, Darkness Shall Cover (Bass) - Giorgio Tozzi
11. Messiah: Air: The People That Walked In Darkness (Bass) - Giorgio Tozzi
12. Messiah: Chorus: For Unto Us A Child Is Born - John McCarthy
13. Messiah: Pastoral Symphony - Royal Philharmonic Chorus
14. Messiah: Recit: There Were Shepherds Abiding (Soprano) - Jennifer Vyvyan
15. Messiah: Recit: And The Angel Said Unto Them (Soprano) - Jennifer Vyvyan
16. Messiah: Recit: And Suddenly There Was (Soprano) - Jennifer Vyvyan
17. Messiah: Chorus: Glory To God In The Highest - John McCarthy
18. Messiah: Air: Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter (Soprano) - Jennifer Vyvyan
19. Messiah: Recit: Then Shall The Eyes (Contralto) - Monica Sinclair
20. Messiah: Air: He Shall Feed His Flock; Come Unto Him (Contralto & Soprano) - Monica Sinclair
21. Messiah: Chorus: His Yoke Is Easy - John McCarthy

Disc 2:

1. Messiah: Chorus: Behold The Lamb Of God - John McCarthy
2. Messiah: Air: He Was Despised (Contralto) - Monica Sinclair
3. Messiah: Chorus: Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs - John McCarthy
4. Messiah: Chorus: And With His Stripes We Are Healed - John McCarthy
5. Messiah: Chorus: All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray - John McCarthy
6. Messiah: Recit: All They That See Him (Tenor) - Jon Vickers
7. Messiah: Chorus: He Trusted In God - John McCarthy
8. Messiah: Recit: Thy Rebuke Hath Broken His Heart (Tenor) - Jon Vickers
9. Messiah: Air: Behold, And See If There Be (Tenor) - Jon Vickers
10. Messiah: Recit: He Was Cut Off Out Of The Land (Tenor) - Jon Vickers
11. Messiah: Air: But Thou Didst Not Leave (Tenor) - Jon Vickers
12. Messiah: Chorus: Lift Up Your Heads - John McCarthy
13. Messiah: Air: How Beautiful Are The Feet (Soprano) - Jennifer Vyvyan
14. Messiah: Chorus: Their Sound Is Gone Out Into All Lands - John McCarthy
15. Messiah: Air: Why Do The Nations So Furious Rage (Bass) - Giorgio Tozzi
16. Messiah: Chorus: Lets Us Break Their Bonds Asunder - John McCarthy
17. Messiah: Recit: He That Dwelleth In Heaven (Tenor) - Jon Vickers
18. Messiah: Air: Thou Shalt Break Them (Tenor) - Jon Vickers
19. Messiah: Chorus: Hallelujah! - John McCarthy
20. Messiah: Part III - Air: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth (Soprano) - Jennifer Vyvyan
21. Messiah: Chorus: Since By Man Came Death - John McCarthy
22. Messiah: Recit: Behold, I Tell You A Mystery (Bass) - Giorgio Tozzi
23. Messiah: Air: The Trumpet Shall Sound (Bass) - Giorgio Tozzi
24. Messiah: Chorus: Worthy Is The Lamb - John McCarthy

Disc 3:

1. Messiah: Recit: Unto Which Of The Angels (Tenor) - Jon Vickers
2. Messiah: Chorus: Let All The Angels Of God Worship Him - John McCarthy
3. Messiah: Air: Thou Art Gone Up On High (Bass) - Giorgio Tozzi
4. Messiah: Chorus: The Lord Gave The Word - John McCarthy
5. Messiah: Recit: Then Shall Be Brought To Pass (Contralto) - Monica Sinclair
6. Messiah: Duet: O Death, Where Is Thy Sting? (Contralto & Tenor) - Monica Sinclair
7. Messiah: Chorus: But Thanks Be To God - John McCarthy
8. Messiah: Air: If God Be For Us (Soprano) - Jennifer Vyvyan

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28148 in Music
• Released on: 1992-08-14
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .44 pounds
• Running time: 161 minutes

Customer Reviews

How Does One Rate THIS?
I am trying to play by the conventions and give this a 'rating' but my own rating means nothing to me when it comes to this extraordinary Messiah. If, as I hope, I can be any kind of guide to other music lovers here, I suggest they focus on the TYPE of performance this is, as best I can give an impression of it, and sort out their own rating from that. It's in a class of its own and no mistake.

Presumably nobody expects 'authentic' Handel from Beecham. He uses the Goossens orchestration, but he also uses a small chorus. He is not in for speed records in general, and some numbers, e.g. For Unto Us, His Yoke is Easy, seem almost unfamiliar in this post-Hogwood era. What gives the latter chorus its characteristic sound is the skip in the rhythm on the word 'easy', and that is true from Beecham as well as the new school, only it's a completely different effect. Beecham's very slow tempi in the Pastoral Symphony and He Was Despised are romantic and anachronistic beyond argument (I suppose). Where Beecham does go at full lick is in the first half of All We Like Sheep, and there I imagine he is coming to the rescue of the music which is well below the inspirational level of its context, even its own second half.

Another oddity is that the men, both soloists and chorus, are far better than the women. As far as the chorus goes, the contrast is almost painful at the start of And He Shall Purify, For Unto Us and His Yoke. Most chorus masters I have heard of are desperate for tenors. The tenors here are superb, so what happened to the women, and why did the tyrannical Beecham tolerate the situation? The female soloists are better, but completely outclassed by Vickers and Tozzi. Tozzi is thrilling, colossal, as the Handelian prophet who is like a refiner's fire. Vickers gets to set the scene when Handel placidly kicks off with what is, to me, the greatest thing that ever called itself a recitative, and I cannot hear his 'and her iniquity is pardoned' without tears coming to my eyes however often I listen.

Some of Sir Thomas's less favourite numbers are ignominiously consigned to an appendix -- he gives his reasons for this, whatever you think of them, in his rather arch introductory essay. Trying to get my thoughts about the whole thing together, I found that one overwhelming impression remains with me -- I never felt from any performance as I do from this that nothing in the whole of music quite equals the typhoon of inspiration that blows through the first section of Messiah, up to and culminating in For Unto Us. Beecham's Messiah suffers in places, I do not try to deny, from lack of historical correctness. Other Messiahs suffer from the much more serious drawback that they are not conducted by Beecham.

consummately perfect. worth one hundred times the price.
This recording is so HIP it hurts.

Today's vogue is capturing yesterday's sound, a proposition which is absurd and very shallow. Every modern recording of this masterpiece tries so hard to sound authentic that it totally misses the point.

Capturing the essence of a piece is not about playing it big and bombastic or light on period instruments; in this case, I am one hundred percent convinced that *this* is the way Handel conceived of this miraculous piece. Forget superficial accuracy - the right tempos, outdated instruments etc. This is elevated music making which captures the SOUL of the work, not its outlines.

I write my review so that you can save your time and not spend needless money like I did (as well as many of my friends, whose jaws are now permanently dropped). For you first-time buyers considering a modern performance of this piece (Pinnock, McCreesh, Solti etc.), I propose the following (as it has always been my creed that direct experience is the best way to prove things): while online, select any and all of the recordings you are considering, compare the online clips of any or all of the available tracks here, and dare to proclaim that anything - old or new - matches the inspired, divine intensity of this recording.

For this experiement, I suggest "every valley", the 60 seconds of which almost brought me to tears while pawing innocently at this website my first time - even the violins are soaring from heaven. And of course, never fear the old and the jaded listeners who dismiss beauty as controversy and who inevitably cling to their trendy, scholarly traditions. I write reviews for the few, not the many, and for the few of you blessed enough to hear this music for what it really is, this recording is for you.

All the best

Shayan.

Garbage
Beecham's take on the Messiah is more Mahler than Handel. If only it were merely boring! Thuggishly blasting his way through it without the slightest concern for good taste, Beecham's Messiah becomes a spectacle of the most ill-advised sort. The grotesquely self-indulgent and pompous tempi combined with the inappropriate and mawkish reorchestration make this recording a travesty such as I have not heard since the Sir Malcom Sargent Messiah. Only the incomparable Jon Vickers saves it from absolute ruin.

Bluntly put, the Beecham recording will only satisfy the musically uneducated.

I would thus implore anyone reading this review to purchase the McCreesh/Gabrieli Consort recording of the Messiah instead. Of the many recordings I have heard, it is unquestionably the best, achieving high drama without abandoning taste.