The worst of it was a tendency toward ever-bigger performing ensembles, so that by the end of the 19th century, it was not unusual to have choruses of a thousand or more. Which meant you had to have a more than full symphony orchestra to match the volume. Result: pomposity piled on exaggeration. An old recording by Thomas Beecham is still in print which pretty well captures the CinemaScope awfulness of this Victorian size-does-matter thinking.

Then along came Christopher Hogwood, musicologist, keyboardist, and conductor, and one of the pioneers in the performance practice movement. In 1982 he assembled his forces in Westminster Abbey (photo) to record his re-creation of Messiah as Handel might have presented it. (There is no definitive Messiah text. Handel frequently re-worked the order of the pieces, as well as the performing ensemble.)

The orchestra was Hogwood's own Academy of Ancient Music, some 30-strong, all playing period instruments. The chorus was men's and boys voices from the Choir of Westminster Abbey, also 30 in number. Soloists were David Thomas, Paul Elliott, Carolyn Watkinson, Judith Nelson, and Emma Kirkby.

Two recordings were made, one for CD release, the other, in conjunction with the BBC, for video release. If you want to add a head trip to the basic ear trip, listen with headphones to get the full effect of the vast acoustic of Westminster Abbey.

It doesn't matter whether you are a Christian or not. This is music and a performance worth pawning your Rolex for. The purity and clarity that everybody involved, from the choir to the orchestra to the soloists to Hogwood himself, brings to the piece is enough to give Christianity a good name.

And the star of it all is Kirkby. If angels have voices, they must be very like hers on these recordings.

END

The video version appears to be out of print. It was released on Thorn EMI Video, 145 minutes, called "Messiah."

For a brief biography of Handel:

http://www.prs.net/bios/handel.htm

Here's the CD version: