RECORDINGS |
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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 |
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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
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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.
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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
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