Search - George Frederick Handel, Stephen Cleobury, Brandenburg Consort :: Handel: Messiah

Probably among the most heartfelt and sincere HIP Messiahs

Yi-Peng | Singapore | 03/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One might be surprised that King's College Choir and Stephen Cleobury have recorded Messiah twice within the space of a year. They recorded the work for Decca and did this live recording for a TV broadcast. However, as much as I love the crystal-clear engineering of the Decca recording, I find that this live recording does better justice to the work and shows the King's choir at its best. The soloists sound riper than on the Decca recording, and are more characterful, and the acoustic of the old Pieterskerk lends a special and unique atmosphere to this performance. It seems like this was taped on a day when everyone just wanted to perform Messiah.



Cleobury's tempi are perfect and well-judged. Often his speeds are on the brisk side, but they sound natural and supple and not rushed at all. In fact they give the needed character to each number and lend themselves to the structure of the whole work. He is well-supported by the excellent Brandenburg Consort, giving its all to this well-loved oratorio. His soloists are impeccably musical and characterful, and sing with velvety tones throughout. Lynne Dawson has a silky-smooth and sweet voice that does ample justice to Rejoice Greatly, and exudes tenderness in He Shall Feed his Flock. In addition, she is equally radiant in But Thou Didst Not Leave and especially in I Know that My Redeemer liveth. Hillary Summers, whom one might know from her performances on the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack, acquits herself to the contralto arias, but admittedly is better suited to O thou that tellest and to the heartbreaking He was despised. There are some signs of struggle in But who may abide and Thou art gone up on high, but she copes with her solos well. John Mark Ainsley is always delightful, opening the performance bracingly and confidently, and shining in all his arias. And Alastair Miles is a wonderful bass soloist, shining in the standout Trumpet shall sound, well-partnered by Crispian Steele-Perkins. I know I like David Thomas a little more because of his more open tone but Alastair Miles employs a wonderful, powerful voice. As for the famed King's Choir, of course they are excellent and superb, rising to the occasion in the choruses, making the most of their sincerity in praising God. As always, the sing as if they mean it. However, the only problem is that the acoustic of the Pieterskerk clouds the diction and one cannot always hear the boy sopranos as clearly as one could wish. This is only a small blemish, and a problem that comes with live recordings, but as it is it's remarkably engineered, despite the occasional coughs in between numbers.



In short, this energetic, heartfelt Messiah deserves to be up there with the many legendary recordings of the work. As much as I admire Hogwood, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Pinnock, I think that this version is so passionate and has so much feeling that I feel compelled to prefer this over the other Messiahs I currently own.



As an aside, the UK Regis label has issued a CD of highlights from this recording, remastered, and offering a riper and more open sound quality than this Brilliant Classics CD set. It may sound marginally better but this CD is pretty good as it is, and is an undoubted bargain that probably rivals Naxos - a 2-CD set for $8. Now I wonder when Regis will release a remastered version of the complete recording...



And there's a DVD version of this performance available, on Image Entertainment and also on Brilliant Classics."