George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) by Balthasar Denner

Dear Readers, the carol concert that I attended last night at St Michael’s Church in Highgate, performed by the Crouch End Festival Chorus, was absolutely wonderful. It was great to ‘sing’ along with the many carols that I’d been complaining about yesterday, mainly because everyone was so into the spirit of the thing that the odd cracked note was well hidden. But the high point for me was the collection of my favourite choruses from Handel’s Messiah. 

What a curious piece this is, in so many ways. To start with, it was originally designed to be performed at Easter, but it has become a mainstay of many Christmas services now. Secondly, the words weren’t written by Handel, but were collected by Charles Jennens, who drew the libretto directly from the Bible, with about 60 percent of the pieces from the Old Testament. Handel knocked the whole piece together in 24 days, though n fact, Jennens wasn’t altogether happy with how the finished Messiah sounded:

“I shall show you a collection I gave Handel, called Messiah, which I value highly. He has made a fine entertainment of it, though not near so good as he might and ought to have done. I have with great difficulty made him correct some of the grossest faults in the composition; but he retained his overture obstinately, in which there are some passages far unworthy of Handel, but much more unworthy of the Messiah.”

In a book about the Messiah that I’m currently getting stuck into (Every Valley, by Charles King), Jennens is described as a man plagued with physical and mental ill-health, and who was considered ‘melancholic and extravagant’ by his neighbours in Gopsall, Leicestershire, where he built a truly splendid Palladian villa.

When the Messiah was originally performed, it involved a smallish choir performing by candlelight, but by the time the Victorians came along it had grown into something involving the biggest choir that could be put together, along with as many orchestral special effects as could be mustered. Such extravagance could be overwhelming – there are reports of people weeping and ladies fainting, though I’m inclined to blame the corsets for the latter. Nonetheless, there is still something so uplifting and hopeful about Messiah that my favourite choruses nearly always bring a tear to my eye. And surprisingly the Hallelujah Chorus, though spectacular, is not in my top three choruses. But here they are, in no particular order.

For, Unto Us a Child Is Born

And the Glory of the Lord

Glory to God

Many of the arias would have been sung by castrati, who were superstars in their own right in the 18th Century – you get something of the idea of how they would have sounded from countertenors such as Christopher Lowrey, here singing the aria ‘He Was Despised‘. At the opening performance in Dublin in 1741, this aria was sung by contralto Susannah Cibber, who made such an impression on the audience that a clergyman, Reverend Delaney, leapt to his feet and shouted “Woman, for this may all thy sins be forgiven!” (the sins including allegedly being in a menage à trois with her husband’s lodger).

And for those who might miss it, here is the Hallelujah Chorus in all its glory…

It’s strange that although Messiah is such a complex and difficult piece, it has so many belters that even those of us who are vocally challenged (ahem) find ourselves longing to have a go at it. I know that in previous years there have been performances of ‘the people’s Messiah’, where ordinary folk go along and rehearse and perform Messiah in the course of a single day. Personally, I can’t imagine anything more joyful. Shout if you’ve ever been involved in such a thing!