SITE RATING: 1/10
SITE REVIEW:
When
reviewing a release like this one, which states quite plainly on its
cover that it's mainly of interest to "Collector's" (a title which, in
this instance, should be taken at face value), it's difficult to know
which audience to speak to. To the general audience, the
casual
audience, this release will hold no interest whatsoever.
These
earliest-preserved recordings of Handel's Messiah
are virtually unlistenable, with, by modern standards, extraordinarily
poor performances and abominable audio fidelity. Honestly -
on
the first recordings from 1906, it sounds as if Uncle Joe pulled
together a local bar band consisting of a badly out-of-tune flutist, a
couple of horn players, and a harmonium, and then pulled a couple of
wanna-be singers off of street corners to sing some popular choruses
from Messiah.
The 1907
Crystal Palace recordings are vitually washed out by white noise, and
so distantly placed is the choir that it's as if they were recorded
from inside a cardboard box across the street. Tempos
throughout are
glacial, the bass on "Why Do The Nations" sounds as if he's being
slapped around on his melismas, and the soprano singing "Come Unto Him"
might as well be singing a funeral dirge. From there, things
generally don't improve. I did enjoy the tenor singing "Thou
Shalt Break Them" but that's a marginal recommendation. For
musical historians, this double-disc set is a treasure-trove of
enlightenment, with actual live performances captured which shows how
great and grand Messiah
had
grown in performance. There are large, sweeping forces
gathered
for these choruses, and the tempi are very much entrenched on the slow
side of things. Listening to this it's little wonder the
period-instrument craze of the mid-1980s-present has had such success.
No one need seek this out unless you absolutely have to have
everything, and if that's the case, perhaps some personal therapy would
be in order.
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