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SITE RATING:  5/10 SITE REVIEW:  I'm unsure as to when this recording took place, since the LP has no notes (despite being a double LP set, the interior and back cover are completely blank, and the inner labels don't even mention the names of individual airs and recitatives). From what I can discover from online sources, Professor Donald C. Gilley conducted an annual performance of Messiah with these same forces beginning in 1947 until his retirement in 1977.  (As of this writing, the Hood College Choir is in their sixty-fourth year of annual Messiah performances.)  The recorded performance is live, with good, somewhat muddy ambiance; and the known artists, including The Chapel Choir at the United States Naval Academy, and the Hood College Choir, are joined by an anonymous orchestra, and equally faceless soloists.  Everyone here sings with great vigor and little subtlety, but the choir and orchestra are unified and in tune, and the soloists are bold and straightforward, and everything is sung with great Victorian vigor and heft. As with many recordings from the 1950s and 60s, there seems to be more emotional connection with the material than can be found on current performances.  I was impressed by the warm, transparent devotion shown during the tenor's "His Rebuke Hath Broken His Heart", and "Behold and see if there be any sorrow".  Being only the "Christmas" section of the oratorio, much is missing, and although fervent and accomplished within it's sphere, this LP, undoubtedly pressed as a private collector's memento, listeners might be surprised by the warmth and connection to the material these artists possessed.

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