Music from Hogwood's Transformative 'Messiah'

Recently we've explored a few historically informed recordings of Beethoven and Berlioz as directed by Roger Norrington in the late 1980s.

About a decade before, another English conductor, Christopher Hogwood (1941-2014) began recording baroque music with original-instrument ensembles, to similar acclaim.

Handel with his Messiah manuscript, detail from a 1756 portrait by Thomas Hudson

Today we have (to my ears) one of his best recordings, Handel's Messiah, here in excepted form. (Sorry, I did not acquire the complete recording due to my relative poverty 45 years ago.)

Here is what Barry Millington had to say about Hogwood's impact, in his Guardian obituary: "At its height in the 1980s, the early music revival was regarded by many as virtually synonymous with the Academy of Ancient Music and Christopher Hogwood, who has died at the age of 73. 

"Established in 1973 with instruments of the baroque period, under Hogwood's direction the AAM examined aspects of historical performance practice with scholarly rigour, paving the way for the achievements of other contemporaries such as Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner and Trevor Pinnock."

This particular recording has always struck me as being emblematic of the conductor's achievements, and (to some) its weaknesses. At the time I was hugely impressed by this and other baroque choral works for their liberating transparency, which helped the music come alive.

Christopher Hogwood

The critic Stanley Sadie presents a traditionalist's view in his Gramophone review: "Those who still hear Messiah in terms of the Crystal Palace or 'Hudderspool' traditions will find it lightweight, perhaps perfunctory, and certainly not the kind of grand, large-scale, corporate uplifting experience that is offered by old-style performances. But this, or something very close to it, is the work that Handel had in his mind's ear. My own guess is that some of his own tempos would have been marginally slower, and that his solo singers might have been a little more forthcoming; there may be a tendency here to carry some of the arguments slightly too far."

Kenneth Cooper, likewise, in his High Fidelity review, while praising Hogwood's attempt to reconstruct correct performance practices, was critical of what he felt had been lost: "Never missing until now ... was the belief in the text, or at least the attempt to convey the depth of its implications. Sargent's 'Hallelujah Chorus,' however leaden, was always a celebration of celebrations; Bernstein's 'Wonderful,' while a little brash, was a taste - a sense - a chill; and the late Margaret Ritchie (in Scherchen's set) knew that her Redeemer lived. Messiah was not just another baroque vocal (or instrumental) work - no one until recently was concerned whether it was baroque or not - it was a moving spiritual drama."

Paul Elliott, Judith Nelson
Carolyn Watkinson, David Thomas

To me, the sheer beauty of the singing and playing herein more than makes up for this. The soloists are among the finest of the day: principally soprano Judith Nelson, contralto Carolyn Watkinson, tenor Paul Elliott, and bass David Thomas.

What is the current view of this performance? To one critic, Gramophone's David Vickers, it does well. This was his 2022 verdict: "The soundscape, musical text and aesthetic world of Messiah were transformed when Christopher Hogwood directed his own independent artistic vision of the oratorio with the Academy of Ancient Music, based closely on the 1754 Foundling Hospital performances. The first recording to use period instruments, the shock of over-familiar music sounding new again while striving to recapture the composer’s expectations and practices was achieved by the textures, timbres and musicianship of the AAM’s large band, the agility and precision of the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, radically fresh-voiced (and largely vibrato-free) soloists and tempos that took Handel’s rubrics more seriously than comfortable tradition had dictated."

He summed up his survey of the various recordings as follows: "No single interpretation offers the best of all possible worlds. Hogwood’s endeavour to make the over-familiar seem brand-new still stands out."

This transfer is from the original vinyl pressing, which has superb sound. The download includes both the LP booklet and the subsequent CD booklet, which is much more extensive.

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