Marvelous live performance of the Mozart Messiah
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 12/17/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Most critics agree that Mozart's Roccoco re-orchestration of the Messiah is both shocking and luscious. Jump imeidately to The Trumpet Shall Sound, for example, and you find that Mozart has not only reued a 9-minute bass aria to two (minus its middle section and repeatsw) but filled out Handel's clarion solo trumpet with horns and woodwinds. The rsult is dismaying, but in other repsects Mozart adds so much gorgeousness to the orchestra that it's hard to resist.
The little secret about 'authentic' performances with scrawny orchestras and a harpsichord (here the continuo is a fortepiano) is that they sound great on records but puny in a larg hall. The harpsichord essentially become inaudible beyond the sixth row of a concert hall. Mozart's version fills any hall, and here we have it filling Symphony Hal in boston. Parrott leads an excellent orchestra and exceptionally good soloists, particularly the bass. The Handel and Haydn Society chorus, being amateurs, can't compete iwth the best professionals on CD, but they are good. One only wishes that the they weren't placed so far form the micropones--visceral impact is fairly minimal in the big outbursts.
Despite minor flaws, this is the most enjoyable Messiash I've heard in years and without a doubt the best reading of the Mozart Messiah on disc."
Disappointing reissue...
The Music Man | United States | 04/21/2009
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Amazon.com is doing buyers a great disservice by allowing certain companies to market and sell inferior products like the Parrott "Messiah". Reissued on Arabesque, it's sold cheap, (much cheaper than the high-priced originals being hawked by CD by opportunists), but you get what you pay for: CD-R's instead of properly-pressed CDs, stripped-down packaging that completely omits the second disc's track listing, no timings for any tracks, and no notes.
And I have to disagree with the above reviewers conclusions about this performance - I've heard much better renditions of Mozart's "Messiah" than this one - the chorus sounds muted, the tempos are ponderous, and the soloists are too 'operatic' for my tastes. In fact, this entire performance hearkens back to the "large" Messiahs of the past, slow-moving and dense.
I would recommend passing this one by - if you want an English-speaking Messiah-cum-Mozart, check out the Harry Christophers/Huddersfield Choral Society discs released by BBC."
Track Listings (24) - Disc #1