COMPOSERS: Handel
LABELS: Argo
WORKS: Messiah
PERFORMER: Lynne Dawson, Hilary Summers John Mark Ainsley, Alastair Miles Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Brandenburg Consort/Stephen Cleobury
CATALOGUE NO: 440 672-2 DDD
Every new Messiah needs an excuse in a crowded market. Here, it is the recreation of a particular version of a work that went through many transformations at Handel's own hands — a Covent Garden performance in 1752. Cleobury directs a brisk, period-instrument reading, boasting a fine quartet of young soloists, but it lacks the interpretative character of the best accounts. Matthew Rye
Handel: Messiah
Every new Messiah needs an excuse in a crowded market. Here, it is the recreation of a particular version of a work that went through many transformations at Handel's own hands — a Covent Garden performance in 1752. Cleobury directs a brisk, period-instrument reading, boasting a fine quartet of young soloists, but it lacks the interpretative character of the best accounts. Matthew Rye
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:48 pm