BBC Proms: Handel's Messiah

Original version

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Handel's Messiah

BBC Radio 3 - BBC Proms, Handel's Messiah

Trevor Pinnock conducts The English Concert and Choir in Handel’s Messiah.

From the 2000 BBC Proms, a performance of Handel’s oratorio Messiah, with The English Concert and the Choir of The English Concert conducted by Trevor Pinnock.

It’s hard to reckon today that, when he came to write Messiah in the 1740s, Handel’s reputation with London audiences was at an all-time low, his last few operas having failed to win over audiences. In the face of this, he decamped to Ireland, writing much of Messiah in Dublin, where its premiere took place in 1742.

It was a success from the start, with women being asked by the Musick Hall’s management to wear dresses ‘without Hoops’ in order to allow ‘room for more company’. Almost 50 years later, an eyewitness at a 1791 performance in Westminster Abbey reported, that ‘when the powerful musical surge of the “Halleluja” [Chorus] rushed forth, and the entire audience, from the king to the lowliest person, stood up … hardly an eye remained dry’.

Messiah’s enduring popularity has meant that its interpretations have come in a vast array of flavours, from monster Come and Sing events with a cast of thousands, to smaller-scale, period-instrument performances with intimate forces. This performance conducted by Trevor Pinnock at the BBC Proms in 2000, falls into the latter camp.

Sean Rafferty introduces this archive performance, and talks to Trevor Pinnock between parts 1 and 2.

Handel: Messiah

Hillevi Martinpelto soprano
Monica Groop mezzo-soprano
Kurt Streit tenor
Nathan Berg bass-baritone

Choir of the English Concert
The English Concert
Trevor Pinnock conductor

(From BBC Proms 2000, 5 August)

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