Traditions Old and New

Here's a note from Bob Christiansen on the great Messiah debate.

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As the holiday season is winding down, I look at the traditions that I've

cobbled together from my childhood and my preferences. Christmas Eve

dinner, an echo of long ago, is a meal where I bring together my Danish,

Swedish and German roots (red cabbage, potato sausage and spaetzele) and

Christmas music, of course, always has to include Handel's "Messiah".

It's the music where things get really interesting because I love the old

Beecham recording (I know, I know, he uses 3 more orchestras and 6 more

choirs than he needs and even the arias can be heard in the Andromeda

Galaxy)! I don't care. Handel was announcing the birth of the ruler of the

universe, and the Beecham version proclaims that with gusto.

On the other hand, there is the pure, clear, crystalline recording with John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists; night and day. I love them both. I just alternate them from year to year.

Bob Christiansen