| RECORDINGS |
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| LABEL: |
CHANDOS
DIGITAL
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| CATALOG
NUMBER: |
CHSA
5176(2)
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| UPC
NUMBER: |
095115517628
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| NUMBER OF DISCS: |
2
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| RUNNING TIME: |
113:58
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| YEAR
RECORDED: |
2015
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| CD
RELEASE DATE: |
NOVEMBER
18, 2016
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| CONDUCTOR: |
SIR
ANDREW DAVIS
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| ORCHESTRA: |
TORONTO
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
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| CHOIR: |
TORONTO
SYMPHONY CHOIR
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| SOPRANO: |
ERIN
WALL
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| MEZZO-SOPRANO: |
ELIZABETH
DESHONG
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| TENOR: |
ANDREW
STAPLES
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| BASS: |
JOHN
RELYEA
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| AUDIO SAMPLES |
HIGHLIGHTS |
OTHER
RELEASES |
CLICK
HERE
to listen to audio samples.
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NONE
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NONE
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DISC ONE
1.1 Overture (Sinfony) 3:37
2.2 Accompagnato. Tenor: 'Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people' 2:33
3.3 Air. Tenor: 'Ev'ry valley shall be
exalted' 3:21
4.4 Chorus: 'And the Glory of the Lord
shall be revealed' 2:35
5.5 Accompagnato. Bass: 'Thus saith the
Lord' 1:31
6.6 Air. Mezzo-soprano: 'But who may
abide the day of his coming!' 4:01
7.7 Chorus: 'And He shall purify the
sons of Levi' 2:31
8.8 Recitative. Mezzo-soprano: 'Behold!
A virgin shall conceive' 0:29
9.9 Air. Mezzo-soprano and Chorus: 'O
thou that tellest good tidings to Zion'
5:07
10.10 Accompagnato. Bass: 'For behold,
darkness shall cover the earth' 2:20
11.11 Air. Bass: 'The people that walked
in darkness have seen a great light'
3:09
12.12 Chorus: 'For unto us a Child is
born' 4:04
13.13 Pastoral Symphony (Pifa) 0:53
14.14A Recitative. Soprano: ; There were
shepherds abiding in the field' 0:14
15.14B Accompagnato. Soprano: 'And lo,
the angel of the Lord came upon them'
0:21
16.15 Recitative. Soprano: 'And the
angel said unto them' 0:38
17.16 Accompagnato. Soprano: 'And
suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude...' 0:18
18.17 Chorus: 'Glory to God in the
highest' 2:04
19.18 Air. Soprano: 'Rejoice greatly, O
daughter of Zion' 4:45
20.19 Recitative. Mezzo-soprano: 'Then
shall the eyes of the blind be open'd'
0:28
21.20 Duet. Mezzo-soprano and Soprano:
'He shall feed His flock like a
shepherd' 5:21
22.21 Chorus: 'His yoke is easy' 2:24
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DISC TWO
23.22 Chorus: 'Behold the Lamb
of God' 2:56
24.23 Air. Mezzo-soprano: 'He was
despised and rejected of men' 5:11
25.24 Chorus: 'Surely, He hath borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows' 1:54
26.25 Chorus: 'And with His stripes we
are healed' 1:49
27.26 Chorus: 'All we like sheep have
gone astray' 3:56
28.27 Accompagnato. Tenor: 'All they
that see Him laugh Him to scorn' 0:43
29.28 Chorus: 'He trusted in God that He
would deliver Him' 2:20
30.29 Accompagnato. 'Tenor: 'Thy rebuke
hath broken His Heart' 1:42
31.30 Arioso. Tenor: 'Behold, and see if
there by any sorrow like unto His
sorrow' 1:16
32.31 Accompagnato. Tenor: 'He was cut
off out of the land of the living' 0:16
33.32 Air. Tenor: 'But thou didst not
leave His soul in Hell' 2:07
34.33 Chorus: 'Lift up your heads, O ye
gates' 3:13
35.37 Chorus: 'The Lord gave the word'
1:00
36.38 Air. Soprano: 'How beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel
of peace' 2:07
37.40 Air. Bass: 'Who do the nations so
furiously rage together' 2:52
38.41 Chorus: 'Let us break their bonds
asunder' 1:48
39.42 Recitative. Tenor: 'He that
dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to
scorn' 0:15
40.43 Air. Tenor: 'Thou shalt break them
with a rod of iron' 1:55
41.44 Chorus: 'Hallelujah!' 3:48
42.45 Air. Soprano: 'I know that my
Redeemer liveth' 6:16
43.46 Chorus: 'Since by man came death'
2:07
44.47 Accompagnato. Bass: 'Behold, I
tell you a mystery' 0:35
45.48 Air. Bass: 'The trumpet shall
sound' 4:10
46.53 Chorus: 'Worthy is the Lamb that
was slain' 6:58
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SITE RATING: 4/10
SITE
REVIEW: Sir Andrew Davis has long been
the respected and lauded director of the
Toronto Symphony, and it was his 1987 recording of Messiah
which was my first purchase of Handel's
great work. As I noted in that review,
it was a solid, traditional, and ultimately
forgettable outing. But on this, his
second recording of Messiah, he's
taken a far different tack; following in the
footsteps of Mozart and Eugene Goossens,
he has undertaken a newly orchestrated and
edited "Concert" version. How does it
fare? Well, as an orchestrator, Sir
Andrew is more Goossens than Mozart - and
frankly, there's a reason why Goossens'
arrangement is never performed today.
Davis's additions are many, and intrusive;
where Handel wrote with lightness and
clarity, Davis's additions are vulgar: snare
drum during "Thus Saith The Lord;" a
thunderous bass drum opening "He Trusted In
God;" and yes, cymbal crashes in the
"Hallelujah" chorus. He also adds
numerous additional flourishes of brass,
flute, and yes, tambourine, beefing
everything up to the degree that the
oratorio often becomes a circus of
sound. All of this might be an
interesting curiosity in an otherwise fine
performance if the rest of the pieces were
superlative; unfortunately, they are
not. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir are
the largest offenders here - with
out-of-tune, dis-unified singing, thick,
muddy, recorded sound, and heavy, hamfisted
tempos. By creating a cacophony of
sound, Davis has abandoned any semblance of
lightness or clarity, like spreading thick,
gooey frosting on a soufflé. As a
friend of mine opined: "Sometimes it sounds
a bit like what Stravinsky did to Pergolesi
in Pulcinella, but without ANY of the irony
or timbral interest." The soloists are
little better - Andrew Staples is a fine,
heroic tenor; bass John Relyea is far too
chesty and thick for my tastes, woofing out
his solos with great, blustery gusto; mezzo
Elizabeth Deshong is similarly dark-toned
and operatic, singing well, but without
deeper feeling, and soprano Erin Wall sounds
forced and unpleasant in this live
setting. A bit of a disaster for
everyone involved, but the blame falls
squarely on Davis's shoulders, who should
have swallowed his hubris and allowed
Handel's genius to breathe.
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