René Jacobs' performance of Handel's 1750 version of Messiah is remarkable for the fresh insights he brings to such a familiar work. His reading is fleet but never hurried, and movements flow fluidly from each other, virtually without pause. This Messiah is an integrated whole, whose ebbing and flowing move it inexorably toward its climaxes, avoiding the usual sense that the oratorio is merely a string of separate, thematically related numbers. The speed of some sections, and certain unconventional articulations, can at ...
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René Jacobs' performance of Handel's 1750 version of Messiah is remarkable for the fresh insights he brings to such a familiar work. His reading is fleet but never hurried, and movements flow fluidly from each other, virtually without pause. This Messiah is an integrated whole, whose ebbing and flowing move it inexorably toward its climaxes, avoiding the usual sense that the oratorio is merely a string of separate, thematically related numbers. The speed of some sections, and certain unconventional articulations, can at first seem eccentric, but Jacobs' interpretive decisions are always guided by the meaning of the texts, and when the initial surprise fades, seem obviously to be the best choices possible. In the sections that can be ponderous in more conventional performances, the continuo, prominent without being overpowering, provides the rhythmic engine that keeps the momentum alive. The free use of ornamentation by the soloists, chorus, and instrumentalists gives the familiar melodic lines a snap...
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Add this copy of Handel-Messiah / Avemo, Bardon, Zazzo, Van Rensburg, to cart. $100.13, new condition, Sold by Sugarhouse Book Works rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Salt Lake City, UT, UNITED STATES, published 2006 by Harmonia Mundi.
