Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108320 in Digital Music Album
• Released on: 2008-01-01
• Running time: 0 seconds

Customer Reviews

Handel's Messiah for $6.99?
Yup, $6.99. I purchased this 2-disk recording 'cause most of my CD-Audio collection was in storage, and I was feeling Xmas-music-deprived. I purchased it at Best Buy while shopping for gift DVDs. (Isn't that always how it goes?)

This recording was released in 1999 by a Montreal-based company called Madacy Entertainment. According to the jacket, the performance was of "The Original Manuscript" (wouldn't Handel's original manuscript of Messiah be considered so valuable that no sticky-fingered string player would ever be permitted to touch it, let alone use it for a gig? Presumably, a pre-Mozart orchestration manuscript was meant...) by the London Philharmonic, conducted by Walter Susskind, with the Philharmonic Choir. There was no information about the soloists, which was the most irritating thing about the packaging; the second most irritating thing was the misspelling of "my Redeemer livith" (sic), though maybe on the original manuscript, that's how Handel spelled it. At any rate, the jewel case inserts contain the spelling that we currently use.

The fine print on the CD jacket indicated that the recording was "issued under license from 101 Strings", which was a hint as to the marketing. 101 Strings was a concept under which recordings of European music by B-list orchestras were inexpensively released. There are a couple of Web sites that discuss 101 Strings in detail; not necessary to do it here. There was no information about this recording at the Madacy Web site, but the company's mission statement as articulated by the CEO was a bit insulting: The word "masses" (as in the "opium of the") was used at least twice, as if the "masses" don't really listen to music and therefore aren't entitled to good, reasonably-priced recordings.

I decided to research this recording a little more. I've concluded that the Madacy CD is probably a digitized version of the 1958 analog recording sold as three vinyl LPs by Pye (catalog ID GGL0152) in England. Might have been monophonic originally, though this recording is in stereo. The recording was probably rereleased as Messiah highlights on the Mode label, but I'm not certain. Without a comprehensive catalog (shouldn't there be one in the public domain on the Web?), one can't know definitively. The soloists, as nearly as I can determine, were April Cantello (soprano), Helen Watts (alto), W. Brown (tenor), and Roger Stalman (bass). I was particularly interested in Mr. Stalman, but found little information about him, other than his being active into the 1970s as performer, teacher at the Birmingham Conservatoire, and founder of the Misbourne Orchestra, northwest of London. He performed Messiah frequently in the late 1950s.

So, back to this recording of Messiah. If you don't own a Messiah recording yet, and you enjoy this important seasonal composition by Handel (though it was apparently written for Easter), spend a bit more money (say, in August, when nobody really cares about Messiah) for a five-star rendition. If you already have a Messiah recording, and are interested in another interpretation (Susskind's Hallelujah tempo is more leisurely than usually heard, Helen Watts is in excellent voice, and you don't hear the harpsichord continuo played very often these days; beware of a few slighty distorted passages), or you simply want a Messiah for the CD player while you're wrapping gifts or loading the dishwasher after Xmas dinner, you can't go wrong for $7. If you intend to buy this recording online, shop around. I had seen it offered for as much as $14.

Happy holidays.

Wonderful version of Messiah
This is the 1st version of Messiah I cam across, by accident, and I have really enjoyed it for the last several months ... the audio quality isn't top-notch, and after reading the previous reviews stating this is an original analog recording from the 50's I understand better why, but I still feel that this version of Messiah captures, for me, how it should sound ... both the orchestra, vocalists, and tempo are perfect in my opinion, and having now purchased other versions of the work w/ quicker tempo's, I continue to prefer this version ... theres just something about the British accents of the vocalists and the purity of the tone of their voices that makes this version very special to me ... if I could find a recording w/ similar tempo w/ better audio quality, I would be interested in that ... however, I don't think you could match the quality of the vocalists ... perhaps someone could digitally enhance or re-master this version ?? Either way, highly recommended!

An Interesting "Traditional" performance
This recording of Handel's Oratorio "Messiah" is as the other reviewer stated a re-issue of an earlier L.P recording which I used to own. I could only find one real drawback to it. It is not
a complete performance of the work, there are I believe Ten pieces that are not included here most of them are cut from Part Two of the work. This does not however really spoil the performance. If you are used to hearing what are now refered to as Historically Informed Performances, or own an "uncut" recording this one might bother you. The tempi are quite a bit on the slow side. This recording is longer than most of the newer ones on the market too, because of the slowness of the tempi. I would not recommend this as a first choice for a recording of this work. I would be more likely to suggest it as an additional one, as it has all the choice pieces that you would normally find on a highlights disc,
and at the price it makes a fair choice as an additional set.