GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759)
Messiah, A Sacred Oratorio (1741)
Messiah’s power, glory, and majesty make it the greatest and most beloved oratorio in all the world. The premiere of Messiah took place in 1742 in Dublin to benefit three charitable organizations. It was anticipated with great excitement—so much so that a local newspaper pleaded with audiences planning to attend to reduce the bulk of their clothing (in order to sell more tickets, and thus bring in more money for the charities): “The Stewards of the Charitable Musical Society request the Favour of the Ladies not to come with Hoops this Day to the Musick-Hall in Fishamble Street. The Gentlemen are desired to come without their Swords, as it will greatly increase the Charity, by making Room for more company.” In 1741, Handel’s friend Charles Jennens (1700-1773) had sent the composer a libretto of Old and New Testament texts he had compiled; Handel was so taken with it that he immediately set to work and completed his inspired score—full of dazzling solos, pyrotechnical instrumental passages, and memorable choruses—in an incredible three weeks. Messiah is divided into three parts: I. The prophecy and nativity of Christ as redeemer of the world (including the joyous “Unto us a Child is Born”); II. The Passion and its redemptive meaning, with the stirring “Hallelujah Chorus” (Audience Alert: this does not signal the end of the work, just intermission); and III. An affirmation of faith and the promise of redemption, resurrection, and life eternal. Handel biographer Paul Henry Lang wrote about the most famous chorus of Messiah: “When the Hallelujah Chorus is thundered, its wondrous strains exuding power and pomp, the audience gets to its feet to greet a mighty ruler in whose presence we do not kneel but stand at attention.” King George II must have known that when he rose out of respect for the performance. We still do so today.

NICHOLAS MCGEGAN
Conductor, born in 1950 in Sawbridgeworth, Hertforshire, England
Nicholas McGegan is one of the favorite guest conductors of orchestras throughout the world. To quote his Website: “You don’t have to meet Nicholas McGegan to know his personality is irrepressible: That quality is central to his music-making, in the rhythmic bounce, tempos that border on the reckless and the musical wit that bubbles up whenever appropriate, whether in performance or on disc. ‘But that doesn’t mean I’m not serious,’ says the conductor, who has also explored the depths of tragedy with the heroes and heroines of Handel operas: ‘I’m serious about things that matter, but I’m not pious, if you know what I mean.’” Though many listeners associate him with Baroque masters like Handel, Rameau, Bach, and Vivaldi, his broad repertoire also includes composers from Haydn to Stravinsky, Britten, Tippett, and Glass. Maestro McGegan has had a long association with the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra—in fact they celebrated 20 years together in 2006—and he has worked with them to become the leading original-instrument orchestra in the U.S. Yet he’s not doctrinaire about the subject. “I try not to come as a prophet of early music, saying, ‘no vibrato this week and I’m going to preach to you for a half hour because you don’t know how to play this stuff and I do.’ That’s a great way to alienate an orchestra.” He has injected a welcome note of reason and humor into the original instrument debate, as he writes in his article, “Bach Without Fear”: “… most of us who work with period instruments have long ago stopped tilting at these windmills because now there are so many more interesting and important things to do. Period-instrument players have become much more concerned with giving emotional performances of great technical excellence. Gone, I trust, are the days when a recording carried a Cordon Bleu across its cover saying ‘played on original instruments’ like some kind of USDA stamp of musical wholesomeness, i.e., ‘This Performance Will be Good for You and Contains Only Marginal Traces of Romanticism.’ These Philharmonic concerts celebrating George Frideric Handel are the perfect showcase for his artistry and philosophy of music making. Nicholas McGegan’s CV reads like a Renaissance man’s: in addition to his many music directorships and long-term affiliations with orchestras, he has lectured extensively, arranged dozens of compositions, published articles, written book-, record-, and music reviews, been on radio and television, received honors and prizes, and recorded more than 100 discs.

“The compact McGegan bounces and hops on the podium, molding phrases with his hands. No baton gets between him and the orchestra.” (Los Angeles Times)

“The Philharmonic strings produced the broad silken tone that is one of the orchestra’s best traits. The brass and the percussion, in the later sections of [Messiah], were as hefty and assertive as ever. Mr. McGegan’s stamp had more to do with tempos, which in the choruses were uncommonly brisk, and with coaxing his singers and players to produce the kind of articulation that gives every moment of the work both a crystalline texture and the right emotional weight . . . when everything is right – as it was in much of the performance on Thursday – the results are both moving and viscerally powerful.” (The New York Times)

New York Choral Artists, a professional chorus founded and directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, has been heard with the New York Philharmonic in recent seasons performing repertoire ranging from Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time to Mozart’s Requiem. Among the memorable collaborations with the New York Philharmonic was the concert on September 20, 2001, of Brahms’s A German Requiem, commemorating the events of September 11. The chorus opened the Philharmonic’s 2002–03 subscription season performing the world premiere of John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic with Lincoln Center’s Great Performers. Other highlights of include participation in the 1995 New York Philharmonic concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, and a televised performance of the 1986 Statue of Liberty Concert in Central Park. The chorus performed Verdi’s Requiem with the Philharmonic in March 2006, conducted by Lorin Maazel, and in the October 5–6, 2006, and February 2009 Philharmonic concert performances of Ravel’s one-act opera, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, also conducted by Mr. Maazel.

Find additional upcoming performances with New York Choral Artists