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How do you conduct the same over-familiar work for the 200th time, and make it sound quite new?

Whether one considers Messiah to be really appropriate for Christmas, it always a welcome gift for the Handel aficionado, and this performance from Rotterdam, while suffering some unfortunate cuts, is an otherwise solid musical offering.

Handel's Christmas classic gets a fresh lick of paint from John Butt and colleagues. 

Handel’s Messiah is not too re-imagined, thankfully, with an almost Crystal Palace sized choir although not all singing at once!

Richard Egarr was able to put together a performance that – full of energy and dynamism – succeeded in bringing forward with great transparency, restraint and delicacy this score’s wonderful musical tapestry. 

A lithe and engaging performance of Handel's festive regular from Polyphony and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Competent if underwhelming Handel from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Maxim Emelyanchev.

A conductorless performance of Handel's masterpiece lights up the Barbican.

It is a high order to mount a captivating performance of a work so widely known and performed as Handel's Messiah. 

Jane Glover’s Cleveland Orchestra performance of Handel’s Messiah was both celebratory and historically-informed.

Superlative musicianship and extravagant detailing from the force-of-nature that is Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music 

“Leave your hoop skirts and swords at home,” the audience was advised, in order to avoid overcrowding when Handel’s Messiah premiered in Dublin in 1742.

Chief performers of the Swedish musical scene give a superb performance of Messiah at the Stockholm Concert Hall.

The Halle Handel Festival offered a unique opportunity to hear Handel's Messiah in both the Dublin version of 1742 and the London version of 1743 within the space of a week.

Netia Jones is a visionary stage practitioner, but this show is a rare misjudgement.

Messiah butchered and trivialised in Sydney performance

Polished, deft and attentive, Les Arts Florissants deliver in concert the same slickness that we have come to expect from their impressive array of recordings, but lack vital energy.

English conductor Nicholas McGegan led a responsible reading of Handel's now-classic oratorio, infusing some dramatic and lyrical touches into a largely unruffled evening.

William Christie and his ensemble Les Arts Florissants (or The blooming arts – a reference to an opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier) visited the Hungarian capital to perform Handel’s Messiah in the exceptional acoustics of the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall. 

Salvation sweetness and light in DC's annual Messiah.

Reinhard Goebel's Messiah with Royal Northern Sinfonia had good moments but the overall performance didn't convince. 

Vibrancy and dynamism at the expense of the majesty of the sacred. 

Labadie made a noteworthy return to the Chicago Symphony in a satisfying performance of Handel's Messiah.

Despite mostly solid work from soloists and chorus, several ensemble problems and overall stylistic decisions diminished this performance's success.

George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” is pretty much everybody’s favourite Easter oratorio, and it proved no less so for the Zurich audience on Good Friday at the Tonhalle.

With only twelve singers, including the soloists, the Dunedin Consort gives an insight into what the first Messiah might have sounded like in Dublin's Musick Hall in 1742.

With so many performances of Handel’s Messiah popping up around the holidays, how’s one to choose?

Paul McMcreesh leads Royal Northern Sinfonia and their chorus in a Messiah that deliveres all the intoxicating excitement of Handel's operatic writing. 

Can a Handel's well-worn masterpiece get dramatic new life? Cleveland's Baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire and conductor Jeannette Sorrell answer with a definitive, “Yes!”

The OSM chorus and a well-matched quartet of Canadian soloists dominate the OSM’s Messiah conducted by Andrew Megill. 

Ex Cathedra's Chorus in fine voice for a "small scale" Messiah in Birmingham. 

A scaled-down Adelaide Symphony Orchestra combine with the talented Adelaide Chamber Singers and visiting soloists, under the baton of Baroque specialist Matthew Halls to present a stunning performance of Handel’s Messiah.

The Stepford wife, the doubting priest, the guilt-ridden adulteress, the family black sheep and the outsted, suicidal CEO:  staples in television dramas but surprising finds in Handel oratorio.

A rousing opening to the Valletta International Baroque Festival: a performance of Handel’s Messiah.   

Ton Koopman directs the Amsterdam Baroque Chorus and Orchestra in a distinctive and personal interpretation of Handel's Messiah.

Soloists from Samling Scholars and Samling Academy join Royal Northern Sinfonia and Chorus for this year's performance of Handel's Messiah at Sage Gateshead.

The last night of the Bristol Proms was experimental. A full house at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre was greeted by artistic director Tom Morris to introduce this semi-staged version of Handel’s Messiah – last performed in the venue in 1782, when it was too sacrilegious for churches. Morris said that Handel was “a dramatist”, and to honour this, he took a more theatrical route with this performance.

Many people have triggers to make them feel seasonal, and this evening’s concert was no doubt a source for many audience members. Festive cheer spread around Bristol’s Colston Hall for an evening of joyous music celebrating the Christmas story with Handel’s Messiah.

Handel’s Messiah is a challenge to any conductor, particularly in the English-speaking world. It’s probably the best-loved piece in the classical repertoire, guaranteed to bring people out in great crowds. You can’t mess with Messiah, but at the same time, there’s a danger of sinking into tired tradition.

If using a descriptive word for the title of a show is bold, calling it Heavenly could be flat-out arrogant. But Introdans is an established company of superb dancers. They live up to the expectation with a program of three pieces around this lofty theme.While the Dutch company Introdans is celebrating their 40th anniversary, this year marks their first appearance in the United States.

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve sung Handel’s Messiah, always in the context of a large choral society or the massed voices of a ‘come and sing’. So it was a special treat to let someone else do the work, and an interesting contrast to have this familiar oratorio delivered by a smaller ensemble.

Two years ago, my voice teacher invited to my very first Messiah performance with the Downers Grove Choral Society, of which he was the director. During the three-hour performance, I vividly recall feeling incredibly uplifted in indescribable spiritual bliss for the whole time I spent in the seat, intensely listening to the historically-informed rendition.

As Christmas is quickly approaching, it is only fair to take advantage of some of the musical gifts and traditions that accompany this festive season. Handel's Messiah is one of the most widely-known sacred oratorios, most commonly recognized by its Hallelujah chorus. However, Handel's Messiah, was not always regarded as a popular work for the Christmas season.

Since its first performance in 1742, Handel's Messiah has become one of the world's most popular and widely performed oratorios. With a biblical libretto which tells the story of Jesus from the Nativity to the Ascension, and stunning, joyous choral parts that lend themselves equally well to small and large choirs, the Messiah has become a festive must-hear.

He thought he had seen Heaven before him. He knew not whether he was in or out of his body when he wrote it. Twenty-four sleepless nights, many untouched dinners and endless tears later, his Messiah was ready to see the world. Or maybe not just yet.True, there had been times when he was ambitious and proud. There had been times when it was all about him. Now he had learned the truth.

Most known for small scale, intimate performances of Handel's Messiah, Harry Christophers led his Choir and Orchestra of the Sixteen - with a few hundred others - at the Festival Hall last night as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations for the Festival of Britain.

On a dark and snowy night, a packed Wigmore Hall was captivated by the Early Opera Company's offering of Handel's Messiah - compared to some, an intimate performance with a dozen instrumentalists and a choir of 8, but which suited the surroundings to perfection.

In a season over-crowded with holiday concerts, Handel’s Messiah is performed all over Manhattan. But there is no better place to hear this Christmas favorite than Trinity Church, a church dating back to 1696 with a deep history in New York and home to the work's New World premiere in 1770.