Customer Reviews
Flamboyant Performance
Love it or hate it, the Beecham recording is quite unique: spectacular, dramatic yet poetic at times, involving and colorful. Beecham is a passionate champion of Handel's masterpiece and unafraid of imposing his own stamp and originality whlie respecting the spirit of the work. Purists beware. The choral and vocal contributions are distinguished, especially the vibrant, powerful, moving even heroic Jon Vickers,perhaps the grandest tenor to have recorded this part.
This Messiah is not a normal performance.
This Messiah is not a normal performance. Beecham asked a friend composer, Goossens, to arrange "If Handel would have made it alive," this arrangement. This performance, unlike a regular Messiah, is performed loudly by a full orchestra, including brass instruments and percussion instruments, but it is a very well arranged arrangement with no sense of incongruity. The orchestra, choir and soloist are great. The sound quality has been significantly improved compared to CDs and records released in the past.
Beecham's Messiah
Handel just doesn't sound right on modern instruments. Music essentially vital, vibrant and eternally new becomes encased in a layer of nostalgic warmth. It can be lovely, but it is always somewhat enervated. Respighi's ancient airs and dances are lovely, but don't sound like Renaissance lute music anymore. Beecham would not have been in a position to know this, and may not have cared, but he instinctively solved the problem in the opposite direction. As a notorious war criminal once said, "if you have a problem, make it bigger." Beecham made it a. lot. bigger. by giving us a radically re-orchestrated and upscaled Messiah that abandons the Baroque altogether and joins the aesthetic universe of Carmina Burana and Schoenberg's Gurrelieder. It is wrong, epically, cosmically wrong, but it doesn't matter. Beecham once quipped that the English don't like music very much, but they do like noise it makes. No Messiah has ever made as much noise as Beecham's, and hopefully no other will ever do so again.
Handel's Messiah - Sir Thomas Beecham & the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
I have many versions of Handel's Messiah, new and old and this is one of the best in terms of tonality the matching of the singers voices to the tempo of the orchestra. Sir Thomas' timing throughout is very good although I still find the version by Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to be the benchmark recording for my tastes. The HDTT recording is excellent with a black background allowing the singers' voices to come through clearly while the orchestra is well placed across the sound stage rather than clustered in the centre as has been the case with other recordings. One minor problem was an error thrown up by the 21st track which did not decompress properly and could not be played back.
Description:
Title: George Frideric Handel - Messiah
Artist(s): Conductor – Sir Thomas Beecham, Bart, C.H.
Chorus – Royal Philharmonic Chorus
Orchestra – Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Chorus Master – John McCarthy
Bass Vocals – Giorgio Tozzi
Contralto Vocals – Monica Sinclair
Soprano Vocals – Jennifer Vyvyan
Tenor Vocals – Jon Vickers
Recording Info: Recorded by RCA
Engineers: Kenneth Wilkinson & Alan Reeve
Producer: Michael Williamson
Recorded June and July of 1959 at
Walthamstow Assembly Hall
TO DOWNLOAD FULL ALBUMS ON SOME FORMATS YOU HAVE TO PURCHASE MULTIPLE PART DOWNLOADS
Part I
1-1 Overture 4:47
1-2 Recit: Comfort Ye, My People (Tenor) 3:38
1-3 Air: Every Valley Shall Be Exalted (Tenor) 3:32
1-4 Chorus: And The Glory Of The Lord 3:36
1-5 Recit: Thus Saith The Lord Of Hosts (Bass) 1:52
1-6 Air: But Who May Abide (Bass) 5:01
1-7 Chorus: And He Shall Purify 3:11
1-8 Recit: Behold, A Virgin Shall Conceive (Contralto) 0:43
1-9 Air & Chorus: O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings (Contralto) 7:22
1-10 Recit: For, Behold, Darkness Shall Cover (Bass) 2:59
1-11 Air: The People That Walked In Darkness (Bass) 4:51
1-12 Chorus: For Unto Us A Child Is Born 4:49
1-13 Pastoral Symphony 4:37
1-14 Recit: There Were Shepherds Abiding (Soprano) 0:59
1-15 Recit: And The Angel Said Unto Them (Soprano) 0:53
1-16 Recit: And Suddenly There Was (Soprano) 0:21
1-17 Chorus: Glory To God In The Highest 2:17
1-18 Air: Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter (Soprano) 4:32
1-19 Recit: Then Shall The Eyes (Contralto) 0:31
1-20 Air: He Shall Feed His Flock; Come Unto Him (Contralto & Soprano) 6:12
1-21 Chorus: His Yoke Is Easy 3:03
Part II
2-1 Chorus: Behold The Lamb Of God 4:08
2-2 Air: He Was Despised (Contralto) 6:02
2-3 Chorus: Surely He Has Borne Our Griefs 2:59
2-4 Chorus: And With His Stripes We Are Healed 2:21
2-5 Chorus: All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray 4:02
2-6 Recit: All They That See Him (Tenor) 0:53
2-7 Chorus: He Trusted In God 2:24
2-8 Recit: Thy Rebuke Hath Broken His Heart (Tenor) 2:39
2-9 Air: Behold, And See If There Be (Tenor) 2:03
2-10 Recit: He Was Cut Off Out Of The Land (Tenor) 0:26
2-11 Air: But Thou Didst Not Leave (Tenor) 3:22
2-12 Chorus: Lift Up Your Heads 3:13
2-13 Air: How Beautiful Are The Feet (Soprano) 3:05
2-14 Chorus: Their Sound Is Gone Out Into All Lands 1:43
2-15 Air: Why Do The Nations So Furiously Rage (Bass) 2:53
2-16 Chorus: Let Us Break Their Bonds Asunder 1:49
2-17 Recit: He That Dwelleth In Heaven (Tenor) 0:22
2-18 Air: Thou Shalt Break Them (Tenor) 2:10
2-19 Chorus: Hallelujah 3:32
Part III
2-20 Air: I Know That My Redeemer Livith (Soprano) 7:43
2-21 Chorus: Since By Man Came Death 2:30
2-22 Recit: Behold, I Tell You A Mystery (Bass) 0:42
2-23 Air: The Trumpet Shall Sound (Bass) 4:20
2-24 Chorus: Worthy Is The Lamb 7:52
Appendix
From Part II
3-1 Recit: Unto Which Of The Angels (Tenor) 0:26
3-2 Chorus: Let All The Angels Of God Worship Him 1:37
3-3 Air: Thou Art Gone Up On High (Bass) 3:59
3-4 Chorus: The Lord Gave The Word 1:12
From Part III
3-5 Recit: Then Shall Be Brought To Pass (Contralto) 0:21
3-6 Duet: O Death, Where Is Thy Sting (Contralto & Tenor) 1:24
3-7 Chorus: But Thanks Be To God 2:22
3-8 Air: If God Be For Us (Soprano) 5:35
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