Celeste Lazarenko, Anna Pierard, Andrew Goodwin, Hadleigh Adams, Orpheus Choir, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Graham Abbott. This year it was back, for the third time, to Graham Abbott, a conductor who was conducting his 75th performance of the work. Not surprisingly he offered us predictability; a complete knowledge of the work, a freshness somehow maintained after a lifetime of conducting the work and a splendid mix of the reflective and the dramatic. In this he was supported by the Orpheus Choir (last time he had the much smaller Tudor Consort ) and they sang, as they always do in 'Messiah', with subtlety in the quieter moments and tremendous verve in the dramatic choruses. But after so many 'Messiahs' I would love to hear, just for a change, the Mozart orchestration of the work - slightly odd in places but with a wonderful colour from a much fuller woodwind section.

Source: Stuff December 08, 2019 02:26 UTC