SITE RATING: 2/10
SITE
REVIEW: OK, you wanna
talk GRAND Messiah?
SLOW Messiah?
Then we're going to talk about
Stokowski's 1966 highlights recording done in
"Phase 4 Stereo". Stokowski today is
known primarily among the masses (for better
or worse) for this collaboration with Walt
Disney on "Fantasia". But for this
recording he chose sixteen movements from Messiah,
and, for the life of me, I can't see why
he bothered. The soloists are all
old-school operatic who chew their way through
each song with relish, the London Symphony
Orchestra and Chorus are recorded with so much
echo it sounds as if they're down in a well,
and the tempos are ponderous enough to make
you believe you're listening to "March of the
Baby Elephants". Stokowski was never
known as a Handellian, and with one listen you
can see why - he doesn't understand baroque
tradition at all. Added to that is the
scant tracklisting, including one track for
each of the soloists, and the Overture and
Pastoral Symphony to show off the LSO, and
there's little to recommend here for even
die-hard enthusiasts.
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