Handel: Messiah

For the first time, the Irish Baroque Orchestra and its Artistic Director Peter Whelan have recorded what can be considered the ensemble’s signature work, Handel’s Messiah, an annual touring highlight in the IBO calendar. Surprisingly this is the first recording on historical instruments by an Irish ensemble – given the work, a staple of oratorio music, was premiered in Dublin in 1742. That year, a struggling Handel came to the second biggest city in the British Isles to rekindle his fortune. After the premiere (700-strong attendance, the ladies were asked to come without hoop-framed skirts and the gentlemen without their swords), Handel left Dublin a much richer man. The Irish Baroque Choir and an array of first-class singers (Hilary Cronin, Helen Charlston, Alexander Chance, Nathan Mercieca, Guy Cutting, Frederick Long and Edward Grint) join the IBO to try and capture something of the atmosphere of that extraordinary moment, in a recording which traces back the origins of this enduring masterpiece.

Disc 1
1: Sinfonia
2: Comfort Ye My People
3: Every Valley Shall Be Exalted
4: And the Glory of the Lord Shall Be Revealed
5: Thus Saith the Lord of Hosts
6: But Who May Abide the Day of His Coming?
7: And He Shall Purify
8: Behold, a Virgin Shall Conceive
9: O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion
10: For Behold, Darkness Shall Cover the Earth
11: The People That Walked in Darkness
12: For Unto Us a Child Is Born
13: Pifa (Pastoral Symphony)
14: There Were Shepherds Abiding in the Field
15: And Lo, the Angel of the Lord
16: And the Angel Said Unto Them
17: And Suddenly There Was With the Angel
18: Glory to God in the Highest
19: Rejoice Greatly
20: Then Shall the Eyes of the Blind
21: He Shall Feed His Flock Like a Shepherd
22: His Yoke Is Easy, His Burthen Is Light

Disc 2
1: Behold the Lamb of God
2: He Was Despised
3: Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs
4: And With His Stripes
5: All We Like Sheep
6: All They That See Him
7: He Trusted in God
8: Thy Rebuke Hath Broken His Heart
9: Behold and See
10: He Was Cut Off
11: But Thou Didst Not Leave
12: Lift Up Your Heads
13: Unto Which of the Angels
14: Let All the Angels of God
15: Thou Art Gone Up On High
16: The Lord Gave the Word
17: How Beautiful Are the Feet
18: Why Do the Nations
19: Let Us Break Their Bonds
20: He That Dwelleth in Heaven
21: Thou Shalt Break Them
22: Hallelujah
23: I Know That My Redeemer
24: Since By Man Came Death
25: Behold, I Tell You a Mystery
26: The Trumpet Shall Sound
27: Then Shall Be Brought
28: O Death
29: But Thanks Be to God
30: If God Be for Us
31: Worthy Is the Lamb
32: Amen

Composer: George Frideric Handel

Number of Discs: 2

Orchestra: Irish Baroque Orchestra

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