SITE RATING: 9/10
SITE
REVIEW: There is
little to fault and much to praise in Sir
Neville Marriner's 1976 recording of Messiah.
Based on the first performed 1742
"Dublin" version, there are small changes
which first-time listeners may not be familiar
with, but the performance is so finely
finessed that I suspect most won't mind.
This recording consistently rates very
highly with purchasers every year, and upon
listening, it's easy to understand why: The
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields plays with
great vigor, yet restraint; and despite
preceding the period-instrument revival of the
mid-eighties by several years, Sir Neville
uses smaller forces, much like the period
instrumentalists, and Marriner's tempi are
more in-line with later "revivalist"
performances, eschewing the then-dominant
largess. But unlike Hogwood's recording,
the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields uses
modern instruments, giving this Messiah a
far fuller, richer sound than can be found in
period instrumentation. In a way, it's
this performance that can be looked at as the
progenitor to Christopher Hogwood's 1980
recording, and in many ways, it is to be
preferred, with the recording simply one of
the finest balanced and most pleasing overall.
Sir Neville avoids the pitfalls of
over-stylization, preferring to give a clean,
delineated performance which manages to hit
all the bases. The soloists are
uniformly fine, sounding neither affected or
diffident; rich, without sounding heavy or
forced, or alternately too clean and bright;
in fact, it's difficult to pick out any
singular performance - it's such a "whole
cloth" Messiah
that every piece of the ensemble fits neatly
into the unity of the musical fabric. My
only criticism would be that the performance
is so neat, so well-mannered, and so perfect,
that it feels at times a little unreal.
Highly recommended. ~ BDW
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