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| DESCRIPTION: Dr Percy M. Young, acknowledged by the Radio Times as "one of the foremost authorities on Handel at the present time", gives in this book his conclusions on the interpretation of Messiah. Scholarship and practical experience combine to produce an indispensable work, characterized by the author's familiar forthright and imaginative style. "I have heard many a Messiah from Albert Hall to small nonconformist chapel; but never one which, in such total of truth and beauty, could be placed in the same class as this." Thus the Birmingham Post summarized Dr Young's own interpretation of Handel's most loved oratorio. It is no exaggeration, therefore, to describe this as an authoritative work. |
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SITE RATING: 6/10 SITE
REVIEW: Having been
written during the heyday of behemoth Messiah
forces, I was fully expecting this 1951 tract
by Dr. Percy M. Young, part of a series of
small books written about different composers,
to be along those lines; a defense of the
full, florid readings which were evident in
Beecham's, Sargent's, and Scherchen's
contemporary recordings. But to my
surprise, Dr. Young rails against these
practices, forcefully arguing that Messiah's
"delicacy" is overrun by "its trombones, its
organ reeds, and the rest of the conventional
addenda."
In fact, he appears to point directly at
Beecham, stating that no one would think of
rescoring Palestrina or Byrd, but that "Messiah
is made to conform with alien principles.
The country road is obliterated. A
trunk road, unlovely and unloved, takes its
place. Progress loses virtue when
arrogant." (pg. 14). Most of the book is
concerned with how the author believes Messiah
is meant to be performed, and he occasionally
gets quite detailed in his analysis, going
line by line through various choruses and
arias. The brevity of the book doesn't
allow a full discourse, but he manages to get
his point across in the pages allotted.
He continues his argument against large
forces in the final chapter, "Orchestration",
which argues for a harpsichord accompianment
verses an organ, which had become the norm.
In the intervening years since this
book's appearance, there has been a huge swing
is exactly the direction which Young argues
for; some would say the pendulum has swung too
far towards "authenticity" - but it's
interesting to read a book which argues for
exactly that point, and from a perspective
firmly entrenched on the "other" side.
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