RECORDINGS

LABEL: TELARC
CATALOG NUMBER: 80093
UPC NUMBER: 089408009327
NUMBER OF DISCS: 2
RUNNING TIME: 139:54
YEAR RECORDED: 1984
CD RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 25, 1990
CONDUCTOR: ROBERT SHAW
ORCHESTRA: ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
CHOIR: ATLANTA SYMPHONY CHAMBER CHORUS
SOPRANO: KAAREN ERICKSON & SYLVIA MCNAIR
MEZZO-SOPRANO ALFREDA HODGESON
TENOR: JON HUMPHREY
BASS: RICHARD STILWELL


AUDIO SAMPLES HIGHLIGHTS OTHER RELEASES


DISC ONE

1. Part One.: Sinfonia
2. Part One.: Comfort Ye, My People/Every Valley Shall Be Exalted
3. Part One.: And The Glory Of The Lord
4. Part One.: Thus Saith The Lord/But Who May Abide/And He Shall Purify
5. Part One.: Behold, A Virgin Shall Conceive/O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings To Zion
6. Part One.: For Behold, Darkness Shall Cover The Earth/The People That Walked In Darkness
7. Part One.: For Unto Us A Child Is Born
8. Part One.: Pifa-"Pastoral Symphony"/There Were Shepherds/And Lo, The Angel Of The Lord Came Upon The...
9. Part One.: Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter Of Zion
10. Part One.: Then Shall The Eyes Of The Blind    
11. Part One.: He Shall Fed His Flock Like A Shepherd
12. Part One.: His Yoke Is Easy
13. Part Two.: Behold The Lamb Of God
14. Part Two.: Behold The Lamb Of God
15. Part Two.: Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs

DISC TWO

1. Part Two.: And With His Stripes We Are Healed/All We Like Sheep
2. Part Two.: All They That See Him/He Trusted In God
3. Part Two.: Thy Rebuke Hath Broken His Heart/Behold, And See If There Be Any Sorrow/He Was Cut Off ...
4. Part Two.: Lift Up Your Heads
5. Part Two.: Unto Which Of The Angels/Let All the Angels Of God Worship Him
6. Part Two.: Thou Art Gone Up On High
7. Part Two.: The Lord Gave The Word
8. Part Two.: How Beautiful Are The Feet
9. Part Two.: Their Sound Is Gone Out
10. Part Two.: Why Do The Nations?/Let Us Break Their Bonds Asunder
11. Part Two.: He That Dwelleth In Heaven/Thou Shalt Break Them
12. Part Two.: Hallelujah
13. Part Three.: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth
14. Part Three.: Behold, I Tell You A Mystery/The Trumpet Shall Sound
15. Part Three.: Then Shall Be Brought To Pass/O Death, Where Is Sting?/But Thanks Be To God
16. Part Three.: If God Be For Us
17. Part Three.: Worthy Is The Lamb...Amen.


SITE RATING:  8/10
SITE REVIEW: Although I never sang under Dr. Shaw, I sang under the baton of one of his most illustrious protégés, Dr. Craig Jessop, for many years, and sang several Shaw-annotated masterworks under his baton, and I can testify that Dr. Shaw was meticulous in his score annotations.  Robert Shaw was considered by many to be the premiere American choral conductor of his generation, and his many recordings testify to his perfectionism and desire for unity.  On this, Shaw's third major recording of Messiah, we're given another meticulous performance, and you can hear the almost metronomic precision with which the Atlanta Symphony and  Chamber Chorus perform.  Dr. Shaw was 68 years old when this recording was made, and although it's not a sluggish performance, it feels very safe.  All of the tempos remain decidedly moderate, and, like Goldilocks, left me feeling a little dissatisfied with the finished results. Telarc, which specialized in making audiophile digital recordings in the opening age of CD technology, had the annoying habit of lumping tracks together into long cuts, rather than taking advantage of the CD's ability to leap from track to track, (most famously on Shaw's 1990 recording of Orff's Carmina Burana, which lumped twenty-five songs into a mere four tracks) have again merged several of the arias and choruses together, lumping them as mini-movements, instead of individual songs, making it impossible to leap from one to another.  Annoying, but not a deal-breaker. Soloists are uniformly excellent, with the odd choice of having two singers share the soprano arias, but both Kaaren Erickson and Sylvia McNair giving near-definitive readings.  Jon Humphrey is also superb in his sensitive, yet potent arias.  The only sticker with keeping this recording from rating higher with me is the tight leash the chorus and orchestra sing under, making the whole enterprise seem more an exercise in precise singing than a truly transcendent experience.   ~ BDW


The Compleat Messiah All Content Copyright © 2015 Bret D. Wheadon
All Rights Reserved.