Charles Mackerras, English Chamber Orchestra, Ambrosian Singers - Georg Friedrich Handel: Messiah (1989)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 787 Mb | Total time: 77:30+77:38 | Scans included
Classical | Label: EMI Classics | # 7243 5 69449 2 3 | Recorded: 1966
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 787 Mb | Total time: 77:30+77:38 | Scans included
Classical | Label: EMI Classics | # 7243 5 69449 2 3 | Recorded: 1966
It was this set which, in company with one from Sir Colin Davis issued by Philips a few weeks earlier, inaugurated the era of 'progressive' Messiah recordings. They had of course been foreshadowed—by Sir Adrian Boult, notably, and by the work of such editors as John Tobin and Watkins Shaw. But this was one of the first to use a chamber orchestra, lively tempos and ornamentation: and between them Davis and Mackerras made us listen afresh to a work whose performance traditions had threatened to become hidebound… The forces aren't 'authentic', but rather larger, and women's voices are used in the chorus. It is however an excellent chorus, well disciplined and clean.