Handel's Messiah is unquestionably the most-performed choral work in the English-speaking world (though relatively unknown elsewhere). For many of us Christmas would not be complete without it, yet it was written as a Lenten piece, the "Christmas" portion being but an overture to the story of Christ's Death and Resurrection.

Messiah has been the subject of an entire book, which fails nevertheless to discuss the most intriguing aspect of its story: the history of performance practice over the years since the first performance in 1741, particularly with regard to the number of performers involved.

In Handel's day the choral forces tended to be small, often only 25 professional male singers, while orchestras might have as many as 40 players (strings, oboes, bassoons, trumpets and timpani, plus harpsichord and/or small organ). But amateur choral societies were on the rise in England, and the performance forces increased greatly: 25 years after Handel's death a performance in Westminster Abbey featured an orchestra of 225 and a chorus of 275 (with an intriguing makeup of 60 sopranos, 48 altos, 83 tenors [!], and 84 basses). This gargantuan approach reached its pinnacle in 1859 in a performance in the Crystal Palace, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Handel's death, with an orchestra of 460 and a choir of 2,700. One wonders where the audience could have sat!

By the beginning of the 19th century, the "Classical" period, the makeup of the orchestra had changed and new orchestrations of Messiah were appearing. Among them was W.A. Mozart's version, commissioned by Baron von Swieten, in which Mozart preserved Handel's string writing but added flutes, clarinets, horns, trombones, and new parts for bassoons and timpani. In addition he wrote out woodwind harmonies once provided by the harpsichord (then becoming obsolete) and organ (usually not available in concert halls).

In 1902 the English musicologist Ebenezer Prout reworked Mozart's version and introduced the piano to replace the harpsichord, now a museum piece which would not see a revival until 50 years later.

This is the version we will perform from today. It is not what Handel would have imagined or experienced, but it is still grand and colorful, and it is what two or three previous generations would have heard. Hopefully, today's listener will regard it as a new translation that casts a different light on the message of this masterpiece.

-- Thomas Beveridge