Handel: Messiah, HWV 56 (1751 Version)

If Handel were alive today, he'd still be revising Messiah--it's the nature of this remarkable work, and it was the nature of its very practical, theatre-savvy composer. The various "official" performing versions and hybrids, along with alternate arias and added choruses, have given modern choirs a wealth of choices for their own performances, including license to just cobble together a version to suit the needs of the available forces--just as Handel would have done. This recording claims to offer "the only modern account of Handel's unique London performances in April and May 1751, when he used [boy] treble voices for choruses and arias." Conductor Edward Higginbottom can't find an explanation for that decision, but just the same he selected three boys from his excellent choir to help replicate the event. Indeed, of all the British chapel, cathedral, and university-based choirs, Higginbottom's Choir of New College Oxford always has cultivated the most ingratiatingly warm, clear, ful