The Greatest Recordings EVER! Beecham's Messiah

[@kellyrichardson3665]

I'm glad you added this one! It is proof that you are a sincere music critic and not a fake. Sir Thomas Beecham is most famous for making THE 'Messiah' recording that ALL music critics pan -- except YOU. And YOU are right!

[@hendriphile]

Anyone reading Stereo Review or High Fidelity in the late 60s was advised to get the Colin Davis recording. The Beecham recording was regarded as some sort of a joke.

[@kellyrichardson3665]

@@hendriphile Yep! I took both magazines at the time & was secretly (or not so) on the side of Sir Thomas Beecham. I knew Handel would have liked him, and I did as well.

[@DavidJohnson-of3vh]

It's great fun!! I love playing it for certain up-tight music friends. Heh, heh, heh.

[@martinhaub6828]

I just had this recording on this morning! I can't stand Messiah in HIP versions, but THIS recording makes it all come to life. I wish more modern performances would use the Goosens version.

[@DavidB-ec7bm]

I am going to get this recording as our local chorale is going to perform this coming in Easter.

[@wayneday3116]

This is the recording that sparked my interest in collecting classical music LP's many years ago. Heard on a decent HiFi system, I was blown away.

[@ClearLight369]

Bravo! This Beecham recording is my overrall favorite. It has the best soloists and the most consistently good group of soloists of any recording I've ever heard. I've heard 12 or 13. You may not have heard of Vyvyan or Sinclair but they are.moving and sound beautiful and put many of their competitors to shame. (I wont mention any names.) PS Klemps's Messiah ain't too bad neither...

[@steveschwartz8944]

I love Beecham in general. His Messiah is enthusiastic, lively, full of "musical toys," and fascinating. Goossens's orchestration is both colorful and bizarre, like a leaning, overfrosted wedding cake. What I love about this recording is its irresistible daring. It's still in the catalogue because it's electrifying and there's nothing else remotely like it.

[@chrismoule7242]

Yep, you get it. We sang this version of Messiah every year at my Grammar school in the '60s, and it always went down a complete storm. There are other versions that I would probably prefer these days, but this one has my heart.

[@Delius1958]

What a great video, Dave. I’ve owned this CD for decades, enjoyed it, but with a guilty conscience. Now I‘m totally free to enjoy it wholeheartedly! THANKS AGAIN! Harry

[@waynesmith3767]

I love Messiah and I have never cared what people thought but I especially love Beecham, Bernstein, and Klemp, her versions of it. There are HIP versions I like also but these guys were onto the dramatic quality of Handel’s music in a way that many” authentic” artists aren’t. I once went with friends to a performance of Messiah with a teeny tiny orchestra of period instruments and a chorus of 12. One of my friends said well thank God it wasn’t that overblown Bernstein type thing! I said Bernstein knew something about the work these musicians never will

[@viningscircle]

I am trying shoehorn in all the terrific Christmas classical music for my listening enjoyment, with a fine selection of Handel's Messiah, including Beecham's.

[@claytonfarmer437]

Speaking of holiday-themed recordings, have you ever listened to Gerre Hancock’s CD of Christmas organ improvisations? It’s absolutely brilliant on Hancock’s part as always, and it’s just such fun to listen to. The 5-movement improvised symphony closing the CD has to be one of the most exciting things ever recorded on a pipe organ.

[@rfbolton]

I still have the 4-LP original release of this recording that my dad purchased in the '50s and with which I cut my Messiah teeth. I loved it so much that at age 12 I once listened to it from beginning to end twice in one day, laying on the floor in front of the old phonograph, waking up when the record changer had finished dropping all 4 discs and it was time to turn them over. I haven't played that thing for decades - maybe that would be a treat for the holidays this year, but of course my current turntable doesn't have the record changer mechanism, so it would not be as slick as in the good old days! 😉

[@diegogonzalez244]

One of my most guilty pleasures.

[@benjamingreenfield9569]

This is definitely one of the greatest recordings ever. Who could argue with the triangle rolls in For unto us a child is born?!?!? The one thing that I miss from it is what we now know about ornaments in recitative. I wish there were some of the appoggiaturi that we’ve come to expect from the period people and rules about how to do the ends of phrases…I really miss the high A in the récit on saying before the glory to god in the highest chorus. A slight quibble, but no one has done a better Hallelujah chorus or Worthy is the Lamb.

[@abrahamclott5604]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I love the Beecham Messiah. I find the musicality extraordinary. And the over-the-top quality is sure fun. But I've always thought of it as a guilty pleasure. A friend once asked me to recommend a Messiah and knowing his taste I recommended Beecham. He ran that by another murual friend who said I had identified the worst of the worst and obviously was a musical illiterate with no taste. Well, I love both Sargent recordings as well. I do appreciate some historically informed recordings as well and am most fond of Suzuki's with his Bach Collegium. But Beachum remains unique and Tozzi's The Trumpet Shall Sound is the be all and end all.

[@maximisaev6974]

"Authentic" or not, I couldn't care less. It was my first Messiah, oh so many decades ago, and I fell in love with "her" then, and I still am now; I'm married to this version until I draw my very last breath. I'm tired of feeling I have to justify my love for Beecham's Messiah; it is what it is. Prepare yourself Dave because I've got a very obvious, sneaking feeling you're about to encounter more than a few negative comments, but I'm in your corner concerning this recommendation. Take care!

[@kevinm6790]

Don’t know how true it is, but I recall hearing or reading that this is actually not Goosens’ orchestration. Beecham asked Goosens to do it but then ended up not liking it, so went with someone else’s rendition while still giving Goosens credit to save embarrassment. ??

[@robertbubeck9194]

A glorious choice to be sure, but my go-to for a Traditional Plum Pudding version of Messiah is the Ormandy/PO/Morman Tabernacle Choir epic. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanunkkah, Dave.

[@kevinm6790]

Mormon. Not that I am one.

[@twwc960]

I love that one too. In no small part because of the great Eileen Farrell!

[@MartinSchneider-k3f]

Dave - I agree with you all the way. If I were a conductor every year I would present Messiah every year in a version like Richter and Beechem

[@jgesselberty]

Bach wrote primarily for the church. Handel wrote primarily for the theater. And, this is a very theatric Messiah. I have loved it from the first time I heard it. I still have the sumptuous Soria Series LP box and book, but listen to this, now, on disc. The Goosens orchestration is like Messiah meets Water Music. Critics have panned it over the years, but you will not find a more exciting Messiah in the catalog. Purists hate it, but prefer the often dry, and frankly, boring versions.of the period instrumentalists. The choral work, here, is superb, and you will not find a more exciting tenor than Jon Vickers. His "Thou Shalt Break Them" will raise the hairs on the back of your neck.

[@viniciussoares6488]

Christopher Hogwood and Academy of Ancient Music is AWESOME !!

[@r.handerlie9607]

Hogwood has said (verbatim) that his goal was to make recordings as if they are in a lab environment. His interpretations really sound like it.

[@kevinm6790]

@@r.handerlie9607Yep, sterile and dry.

[@LordoftheFleet]

I'll refrain from commenting for the very simple reason that you wouldn't want to read it.

[@maximisaev6974]

I'm sure Dave will read it, but you might not appreciate his reply. :)

[@garyfoster3854]

Meh. Why are you here then?

[@LordoftheFleet]

@@maximisaev6974 At least I was honest.

[@LordoftheFleet]

@@garyfoster3854 Why am I here? I'm here because I respect Dave's opinion, and his videos have led me to purchasing a number of CDs that he has reviewed during the past years. Having said that, I just ain't going to rush out and buy The Messiah, and I don't care whose conducting it. Added to that, I'm not a fan of all that goes on at this time of the year. If other people like it, that's fine. but I don't see why one should "have" to like it and constantly have it shoved down one's throat.