Handel’s magnificent Messiah is the perfect marriage of theatre and church, its choruses, arias and recitatives, telling the Christmas and Easter stories, unrivalled in their dramatic and musical invention. Each number—from the stately tenor solo “Ev’ry Valley Shall Be Exalted” and the fizzing “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” to the great “Hallelujah Chorus”—is Handel at his brilliant best. There have been hundreds of recordings over the decades, but few are as fresh and spontaneous as this classic 1997 interpretation, conductor Paul McCreesh’s singers and players bringing the joy of this dependable masterpiece to compelling life. Remastered in Spatial Audio in 2021, this beautifully shaped performance sounds as electrifying as ever.
- Pomerium & Alexander Blachly
- Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Harry Christophers, Lynda Russell, Mark Padmore, Michael George, The Sixteen & The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
- Iain Farrington, Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge & Christopher Robinson
- Bernhard Klapprott, Cantus Thuringia, Capella Thuringia, Peter Kooij, Monika Mauch, Nico van der Meel & Kai Wessel
- Andrew Parrott & Taverner Consort
- The Marian Consort & Rory McCleery
- Paul Hillier, Pro Arte Singers & Indiana University Children's Chamber Choir