SITE RATING: 6/10
SITE
REVIEW: London-based
Pickwick Records, a budget label which made
"sound-alike" albums throughout the
mid-to-late twentieth century, produced this
stripped-down version of Handel's Messiah
in the early part of 1960, and it was then
marketed in the United States through Radio
Shack's Realistic
label.
Utilizing only organ accompaniment, I
was initially impressed by the sensitivity of
both J. Clifford Welsh's adept playing, and
the unnamed tenor's opening aria - it
completely surpassed expectations; the tenor
has a lovely, warm tone, with a hint of a
European accent that I can't place, and sings
with complete mastery and feeling, only
spreading a little thin in his uppermost
register. The Masterwork Chorus, based
out of New Jersey, is a trifle soft - both in
the recording and in their performance, with
regional dialects and the singing manners of
the time prevalent. The bass soloist is
equally proficient as his tenor counterpart,
singing with a strong, vibrant tone, while the
soprano possesses a natural, lovely, light
tessitura; the unnamed Alto I would rank as
similar to the chorus, having a natural,
pleasant tone, but soft and a bit detached in
her performance. Conductor David
Randolph, who, according to the notes, is
"well known to music lovers ...as host on his
award winning radio program, "Music for the
Connoisseur", on WNYC" and other such
accolades, keeps tempos smoothly romantic,
bringing out a great deal of warmth to this Messiah.
Recorded at St. Peter's Episcopal Church
in Morristown, New Jersey, the sound is rather
thick and full of echo, but despite its
shortcomings, I found this a charming
performance from the period, and wouldn't
object to seeing it restored and reissued on
CD.
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