Messiah
Programme notes by Heath Lees
Now in its ninety-ninth non-stop year, Auckland Choral’s Messiah is an annual
event that brings the composer Handel back to vigorous life and re-creates
some of the most famous music in the world. Brilliantly premiered way back
in 1742, Messiah has now become as Christmassy as plum pudding and as
English as Dickens’ Christmas Carol.
Yet Messiah was not originally intended for Christmas, but for Easter, and
the man who had the original idea was not Handel but his literary colleague
Charles Jennens, a patron of the arts, a talented writer and a staunch
churchman. It was Jennens’ idea to abandon the usual historical sequence
of an oratorio, and use instead his own choice of scripture. His aim was to
present Jesus of Nazareth as a threefold Messiah, first as the fulfilment of
ancient prophecy, second as the crucified Son of God, and third as the risen
Saviour, King of Heaven and Earth.
Commemorative stone in Fishamble Street,
Dublin, where the first performance of
Messiah took place.
Inspired by the clarity of this exposition
and the epic quality of Jennens’ choice
of texts, Handel wrote the music in an
astonishing three-and-a-half weeks. The
oratorio premiered on the stage of The
Great Musick Hall in Dublin’s Fishamble
Street on April 13, 1742, to a super-sized
audience of 700 — many more than
usual as the men had left their swords at
home and the women had obeyed the
management’s appeal to wear dresses
without hoops, thus freeing up more
space for seating.
If we were asked to make a list of say fifty of Handel’s ‘Greatest Hits’ it’s a sure
bet that at least half of them would come from Messiah. The reason for its
most-favoured status is twofold: firstly because Christmas and Easter come
upon us every year, so the music is often performed, and increased frequency
leads to increased popularity.
But secondly, the music is unforgettable on its own account.. Despite his
‘foreign’ extraction, Handel’s ear for the English language was so acute that he
etched passages of scripture into a kind of musical eternity, where the most
natural sounds became fused with the most exalted ideas.
Think about those biblical moments that Handel brought to life. The word
“Hallelujah” was rendered immortal through Messiah . The phrase “For unto
4