It was this set which, in company with one from Sir Colin Davis issued by Philips a few weeks earlier, inaugurated the era of 'progressive' Messiah recordings. They had of course been foreshadowed—by Sir Adrian Boult, notably, and by the work of such editors as John Tobin and Watkins Shaw. But this was one of the first to use a chamber orchestra, lively tempos and ornamentation: and between them Davis and Mackerras made us listen afresh to a work whose performance traditions had threatened to become hidebound. The next step, of course, was the use of period instruments; and listening to this version now arouses mixed reactions, because ideas have moved on so quickly since it first appeared. Some of it seems oddly dated. Basil Lam, the editor, and Sir Charles Mackerras specified a good deal of ornamentation and encouraged the singers to add more. Some of it works well. Some sounds as if it had been written down and carefully rehearsed, which is not how ornamentation ought to be. And some, especially that in the chorus and orchestra is apt to sound clumsy and fairly silly. Orchestras did, occasionally, ornament their music we know this from the many commentators who condemned the practice as chaotic and ineffective. But they didn't add trills and the like as uniformly or as often as here: this stops being ornamentation and starts being rewriting.
But there is a lot to enjoy in this set. The forces aren't 'authentic', but rather larger, and women's voices are used in the chorus. It is however an excellent chorus, well disciplined and clean. The solo singing is of a high order. Dame Janet Baker is in superlative voice, if ornamentally overexuberant in ''O thou that tellest'' and romantically slow in ''He was despised'' (though I should add that some of the performances in periodinstrument versions are even slower). There is much charm in Elizabeth Harwood's soprano solos, as always, and Paul Esswood is at his superb best in ''But who may abide''. Robert Tear sings the tenor music clearly and tastefully and Raimund Herincx makes a sturdy bass soloist. In sum, this is a very acceptable intermediate Messiah, very much representative of the early 1970s and their interpretative thinking, well executed but with quite a few things that to my mind aren't quite attuned to Handel—and some of the period versions (I do not need to recapitulate what I wrote on this in last month's issue) are surerfooted on questions of style. But if you want a Messiah that discards the old, solemn, heavyweight traditions, yet does not go as far as using period instruments, this one is unlikely to disappoint you.'