× Upcoming Events 2024-2025 Season Donate to NatPhil Sign Up for NatPhil ENews Follow Us On Facebook Follow Us On Instagram Past Events
Home 2024-2025 Season Donate to NatPhil Sign Up for NatPhil ENews Follow Us On Facebook Follow Us On Instagram
Handel's Messiah

George Frideric Handel

(born February 23, 1685 in Halle, Germany; died April 14, 1759 in London, England)

On April 10, 1742, the following note appeared in the Dublin News-Letter: “Yesterday morning, at the Musick Hall, there was a public rehearsal of the Messiah, Mr. Handel’s new sacred oratorio, which in the opinion of the best judges, far surpasses anything of that nature, which has been performed in this or any other Kingdom. The elegant entertainment was conducted in the most regular manner, and to the entire satisfaction of the most crowded and polite assembly.”

The announcement, coming immediately after a highly successful concert season that Handel had just completed in Dublin, raised high expectations for the premiere of the new oratorio, which took place on April 13, 1742. Advertisements went out requesting that gentlemen attended without their swords, and ladies without hoops in their dresses, in order to maximize the capacity of the concert hall, so that at the premiere 700 people crowded in the Musick Hall. The performance was a resounding success. Handel not only directed from the keyboard, but also played a selection of his own concertos for organ between the different sections of Messiah. The Dublin Journal summarized its review of the performance by stating that “the sublime, the grand, and the tender, adapted to the most elevated, majestic and moving words, conspired to transport and charm the ravished heart and ear.”

The man who composed the Messiah was, by all accounts, a very difficult person. Handel was subject to violent outbursts and often engaged in quite unreasonable behaviors. In one such tantrum, durin rehearsals with the renowned soprano Francesca Cuzzoni, Handel lost patience because she refused to follow his instructions and, in a fit of rage, grabbed her by the waist and threatened to throw her out of the window. This explosive side of his personality, however, was balanced by his open-hearted generosity to charities, orphans, retired musicians, and the ill.

At the time of the composition of Messiah, Handel was in the midst of a major career change. For most of his life, he had been known primarily as an outstanding composer of Italian operas, which he produced at a seemingly unstoppable rate. He was also a savvy businessman, well attuned to the expectations of his audience and his patrons. The opera season of 1740-41, however, was extremely disappointing, well below the kind of economic and artistic success with which Handel had grown accustomed. The failure of that particular opera season was not an isolated event, but an indication that his many years of undiminished success as an opera composer and producer were drawing to a close. It was then that he turned to the composition of English oratorios, which had the advantage of not requiring elaborate sets, costumes, or international opera stars. Among Handel’s closest friends was the Shakespearean scholar Charles Jennens (1700-1773), who had been a devoted champion of Handel’s music since 1725. At the time of the disappointing opera season of 1740-41, Handel had already produced a few successful English oratorios, and these early ventures may have given Jennens the impetus to propose a new subject. In a July, 1741 letter to his friend Edward Holdsworth, Jennens commented that he hoped to persuade Handel to “set another Scripture collection” that he had made for him, and he predicted that, if Handel lavished all his skills upon this new project, it would surpass everything he had done before, because the subject itself excelled all the others. This was the libretto for Messiah.

Jennens’s libretto is rather unusual, consisting of references and allusions to the figure of Jesus Christ culled from several sections of the Bible (only one of which was taken directly from the Gospels), and from the version of the Psalms in the Book of Common Prayer. This approach produced a libretto in which there is no particular narrative center, as if everything were being told from an oblique and mediated perspective. The unusual nature of the libretto inevitably influenced Handel’s musical conception. Unlike most of Handel’s oratorios, Messiah does not have well-defined characters. A cursory glance at its many arias, recitatives, choruses, and duets is enough to show that Handel conceived the musical structure of Messiah as an ongoing reflection on the story of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, direct characterization is consistently avoided in Messiah. The singers do not assume dramatic roles, as happens in most of Handel’s other oratorios. Also, the chorus achieves an importance that remains unique among works of this genre. Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces (the choir for the premiere consisted of 26 boys and 5 men from the combined choirs of St. Patrick’s and Christ Church cathedrals), and the tradition of big Messiahs, with large choirs and orchestras, is a late development. Overall, the music of Messiah is characterized by a carefully balanced orchestration, in which Handel opted for restraint instead of rhetorical prowess. He uses instruments judiciously, such as the beautifully delayed use of the trumpets to create a highly effective contrast as they color the “Hallelujah” chorus and the final chorus, “Worthy is the Lamb.”

Handel composed Messiah at breakneck speed, in 24 days between August 22 and September 14, 1741. Statistics have placed the total number of notes in the oratorio at approximately a quarter of a million, which means that Handel would have to write an average of 15 notes per minute, for 10 hours straight every day. The London premiere of Messiah took place at Covent Garden on March 23, 1743, almost a full year after the Dublin premiere. Legend has it that, during the “Hallelujah” chorus, King George II was so moved that he stood up, even though there is no evidence that he was ever present at that or any other performance of the oratorio. Since then, nevertheless, a tradition was established (mentioned for the first time in 1756) of standing during this portion of the oratorio. Handel gave a total of 36 performances of Messiah from 1742 to 1759, the year of his death. His fondness for Messiah is also attested by the fact that, eight days before he died, frail and blind, he insisted upon attending its performance at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. Among the most extravagant performances of Messiah on record was the one at the Crystal Palace in London in 1857 as part of a Handel festival, which included a chorus of 2000 singers and an orchestra of 500 instrumentalists. Performances of Messiah calling for large vocal and instrumental forces have continued to this day, as has the tradition of performing Messiah as a staple of the Christmas holidays. The version of Messiah that Leonard Bernstein recorded in 1956 with the New York Philharmonic and the Westminster Choir documents his extensive revision and rearrangement of the work, an approach that was rather controversial (and remains so), but which fits within a long tradition of different “versions” of Messiah. The work has been re-orchestrated and rearranged several times by many composers (including Mozart), and Bernstein’s rather personal version stems from that tradition.

@ James Melo, 2018

Handel's Messiah

George Frideric Handel

(born February 23, 1685 in Halle, Germany; died April 14, 1759 in London, England)

On April 10, 1742, the following note appeared in the Dublin News-Letter: “Yesterday morning, at the Musick Hall, there was a public rehearsal of the Messiah, Mr. Handel’s new sacred oratorio, which in the opinion of the best judges, far surpasses anything of that nature, which has been performed in this or any other Kingdom. The elegant entertainment was conducted in the most regular manner, and to the entire satisfaction of the most crowded and polite assembly.”

The announcement, coming immediately after a highly successful concert season that Handel had just completed in Dublin, raised high expectations for the premiere of the new oratorio, which took place on April 13, 1742. Advertisements went out requesting that gentlemen attended without their swords, and ladies without hoops in their dresses, in order to maximize the capacity of the concert hall, so that at the premiere 700 people crowded in the Musick Hall. The performance was a resounding success. Handel not only directed from the keyboard, but also played a selection of his own concertos for organ between the different sections of Messiah. The Dublin Journal summarized its review of the performance by stating that “the sublime, the grand, and the tender, adapted to the most elevated, majestic and moving words, conspired to transport and charm the ravished heart and ear.”

The man who composed the Messiah was, by all accounts, a very difficult person. Handel was subject to violent outbursts and often engaged in quite unreasonable behaviors. In one such tantrum, durin rehearsals with the renowned soprano Francesca Cuzzoni, Handel lost patience because she refused to follow his instructions and, in a fit of rage, grabbed her by the waist and threatened to throw her out of the window. This explosive side of his personality, however, was balanced by his open-hearted generosity to charities, orphans, retired musicians, and the ill.

At the time of the composition of Messiah, Handel was in the midst of a major career change. For most of his life, he had been known primarily as an outstanding composer of Italian operas, which he produced at a seemingly unstoppable rate. He was also a savvy businessman, well attuned to the expectations of his audience and his patrons. The opera season of 1740-41, however, was extremely disappointing, well below the kind of economic and artistic success with which Handel had grown accustomed. The failure of that particular opera season was not an isolated event, but an indication that his many years of undiminished success as an opera composer and producer were drawing to a close. It was then that he turned to the composition of English oratorios, which had the advantage of not requiring elaborate sets, costumes, or international opera stars. Among Handel’s closest friends was the Shakespearean scholar Charles Jennens (1700-1773), who had been a devoted champion of Handel’s music since 1725. At the time of the disappointing opera season of 1740-41, Handel had already produced a few successful English oratorios, and these early ventures may have given Jennens the impetus to propose a new subject. In a July, 1741 letter to his friend Edward Holdsworth, Jennens commented that he hoped to persuade Handel to “set another Scripture collection” that he had made for him, and he predicted that, if Handel lavished all his skills upon this new project, it would surpass everything he had done before, because the subject itself excelled all the others. This was the libretto for Messiah.

Jennens’s libretto is rather unusual, consisting of references and allusions to the figure of Jesus Christ culled from several sections of the Bible (only one of which was taken directly from the Gospels), and from the version of the Psalms in the Book of Common Prayer. This approach produced a libretto in which there is no particular narrative center, as if everything were being told from an oblique and mediated perspective. The unusual nature of the libretto inevitably influenced Handel’s musical conception. Unlike most of Handel’s oratorios, Messiah does not have well-defined characters. A cursory glance at its many arias, recitatives, choruses, and duets is enough to show that Handel conceived the musical structure of Messiah as an ongoing reflection on the story of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, direct characterization is consistently avoided in Messiah. The singers do not assume dramatic roles, as happens in most of Handel’s other oratorios. Also, the chorus achieves an importance that remains unique among works of this genre. Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces (the choir for the premiere consisted of 26 boys and 5 men from the combined choirs of St. Patrick’s and Christ Church cathedrals), and the tradition of big Messiahs, with large choirs and orchestras, is a late development. Overall, the music of Messiah is characterized by a carefully balanced orchestration, in which Handel opted for restraint instead of rhetorical prowess. He uses instruments judiciously, such as the beautifully delayed use of the trumpets to create a highly effective contrast as they color the “Hallelujah” chorus and the final chorus, “Worthy is the Lamb.”

Handel composed Messiah at breakneck speed, in 24 days between August 22 and September 14, 1741. Statistics have placed the total number of notes in the oratorio at approximately a quarter of a million, which means that Handel would have to write an average of 15 notes per minute, for 10 hours straight every day. The London premiere of Messiah took place at Covent Garden on March 23, 1743, almost a full year after the Dublin premiere. Legend has it that, during the “Hallelujah” chorus, King George II was so moved that he stood up, even though there is no evidence that he was ever present at that or any other performance of the oratorio. Since then, nevertheless, a tradition was established (mentioned for the first time in 1756) of standing during this portion of the oratorio. Handel gave a total of 36 performances of Messiah from 1742 to 1759, the year of his death. His fondness for Messiah is also attested by the fact that, eight days before he died, frail and blind, he insisted upon attending its performance at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. Among the most extravagant performances of Messiah on record was the one at the Crystal Palace in London in 1857 as part of a Handel festival, which included a chorus of 2000 singers and an orchestra of 500 instrumentalists. Performances of Messiah calling for large vocal and instrumental forces have continued to this day, as has the tradition of performing Messiah as a staple of the Christmas holidays. The version of Messiah that Leonard Bernstein recorded in 1956 with the New York Philharmonic and the Westminster Choir documents his extensive revision and rearrangement of the work, an approach that was rather controversial (and remains so), but which fits within a long tradition of different “versions” of Messiah. The work has been re-orchestrated and rearranged several times by many composers (including Mozart), and Bernstein’s rather personal version stems from that tradition.

@ James Melo, 2018