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Published: Saturday, 07 December 2024 at 13:09 PM


Performances of Handel’s Messiah are now a public ritual, yet our annual sing-ins and choral society performances misrepresent the work. Here, we name the best recordings of Handel’s iconic choral work.

Conceived at a career low, Messiah was successfully test-run in Dublin, but in London fell foul of the church’s ban on performing Biblical verses in a theatre. Handel got around this by making Messiah a feature of his Lenten charity benefit concerts. These became a seasonal ritual for leading citizens, not least because of the new music Handel would introduce for his star soloists.

Following the 1784 Handel Commemoration at Westminster Abbey, the score of Messiah became fixed, and performing forces huge. Re-scored by Mozart and others, post-1780 versions dropped star-specific solos, obscured Handel’s counterpoint, and slowed his ebullient dance rhythms.

Artists tackling Messiah today therefore face the challenge both of getting to grips with Handel’s different versions – and of meeting expectations set up by misinformed past practice. Here, we investigate some of the best recordings of Handel’s great Messiah.

We named Handel’s Messiah one of the greatest pieces of Christmas classical music ever

Recordings of Handel’s Messiah: the best

Stephen Layton (conductor)

Allan Clayton, Iestyn Davies, Polyphony; Britten Sinfonia (2009)
Hyperion CDA67800

Stephen Layton’s musicians bring an unparalleled freshness to this familiar work, combining power with a delicacy faithful to Handel’s Baroque sensibility. The music Handel composed for Messiah is meant to convince audiences of a vision beyond religious factionalism, and Layton rightly shapes his reading around the oratorio’s verses.

Every phrase, whether played or sung, is suffused with word-meaning. Momentum builds throughout the work, thanks to the excellent musicianship of choir, conductor, instrumentalists and soloists alike.