Sing Händel`s MESSIAH in Salzburg

Georg Friedrich Händel was born on 23rd February 1685 in Halle, Germany. After leaving Germany he lived in Italy and then in England. Working for English Royalty he created works of world wide significance. The oratorio „Messiah“ is Handel’s greatest work.

The piece is so popular that many singers and choirs all over the world regularly meet up in large Messiah-Choirs for joint concerts.

This traditions started in the 19th century and saw performances with many hundred singers in famous concerts such as Boston in 1869 or London in 1884.

Since more than 10 years „Messiah“ can be sung in a large choir in Halle, Germany („Happy Birthday Handel“). Now the „Jubilate – Choir Salzburg“ invites you for the „Messiah – Choir-Festival“ in Mozart’s town. W.A. Mozart himself arranged some of Handel‘s works and performed them in the style of the 18th century.

In Salzburg will be performed Leonard Bernstein’s version (1956):

This version of Handel's 'Messiah' could quite possibly be feasible today only as a Bernstein reissue. The quest for authenticity has overtaken the performance and recording of early music, and even a conductor recording 'Messiah' without attempting a historically-informed style of performance wouldn't dare introduce the level of revision that Bernstein did for his Carnegie Hall performances which preceded it.

The irony here is that Bernstein's rearrangement of the sections works as the dramatic sequence he intended, and his reasons for doing it make sense. He made no claims to authenticity and didn't apologize for mucking about with a "masterpiece." Bernstein saw the second part of the work as falling into two sections: switching them put the "joyful" music of the latter half of Part II immediately after Part I (the "Christmas" section), reshaping the whole work into two large parts rather than three.