Program Notes: Handel Messiah 2025

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL 
Messiah 
BORN: February 23, 1685, in Halle, Saxony 
DIED: April 14, 1759, in London, England 
WORK COMPOSED: 1741 
WORLD PREMIERE: April 13, 1742, in Dublin, with Handel conducting. 

The year 1741 did not begin well for George Frideric Handel. Two operatic flops in a row reduced the composer to near indigence. Given the fickle taste of London’s concert habitués, Handel’s sudden hardship was neither new nor entirely unexpected. More than once, he had seen his fortunes rise and fall in response to changes in English operatic taste. This time seemed worse, since the financial loss was accompanied by a dramatic decline in his health. Yet his unstoppable will enabled him to survive life’s inevitable crises.

By summer, Handel was physically and emotionally restored. He threw himself into a new oratorio with a text from his frequent collaborator, Charles Jennens. With Messiah, Jennens skillfully arranged Biblical material into a cohesive libretto, rewriting sacred texts to suit musical elaboration. That August, Handel secreted himself in his apartment, refusing all visitors and almost all food brought to him by his worried valet. He finally emerged three weeks later, clutching the completed manuscript of what would become the most beloved choral work in the English-speaking world.

Freshly penned score in tow, Handel proceeded to Dublin in response to an invitation from the Duke of Devonshire to lead a series of charity concerts. Handel knew that a visit to Dublin, where he was still an admired figure, was a golden opportunity to get on his feet again. In the spring of 1742, Dubliners were regaled with the first public performances of Messiah, and they showed their approval with ardent applause. Ever generous, Handel donated his share of the proceeds to a number of charitable institutions.

Upon his return to London, Handel presented his oratorio to the English public, which initially greeted the work tepidly. From 1750 until his death, however, Messiah received annual benefit performances at the Foundling Hospital in London. 

Though the subject of this wondrous work is obviously central to the Christian tradition, Messiah was written for the concert hall, not for the church. It was conceived musically as an alternative to opera; with no scenery or costumes, oratorio was much cheaper to produce. Relying more heavily on choral participation than opera did, it appropriated many of the structural conventions of the musical-dramatic tradition. In its three-part layout, Messiah can be parsed as a three-act opera without visuals.  

In its three “acts,” we witness and share in a vast range of emotions generated in the unfolding story of mankind’s yearning, hope, anguish and eventual redemption. Part I functions as a prologue, establishing the major Old Testament prophecies of the coming of the Messiah in both his gentle and terrible aspects, with the expressed promise of a holy kingdom embracing all of humanity. The two-part French Overture gives us a preview of the work’s eventual journey from darkness to light: a slow and solemn Grave yields to a vigorous, three-voiced fugal Allegro. One of many beauties of the opening panel of this great musical triptych is the aria “Every valley shall be exalted,” wherein the composer expands upon the word “exalted” to heighten its textual implications. Here and elsewhere, Handel broadens the sense of architecture and grandeur through the simple but effective use of orchestral introductions, interludes and postludes. 

Another unalloyed gem in Part I is the fugal chorus “And He shall purify,” one of four choruses, incidentally, drawn from earlier Handelian works. The magnificent chorus “For unto us a child is born,” transports the listener with its unflagging rhythmic energy and exuberant burst of glory on the words, “Wonderful, Counselor.” The brief and lovely “Pastoral Symphony” that follows is, aside from the Overture, the only purely orchestral number. Its gently rocking 12/8 meter (a connective rhythmic “motto” recurring throughout the entire score) and enchanting innocence have assured its independent life as a concert encore. 

Part II focuses on Christ’s suffering and death. Here, the composer drew upon his considerable experience in opera to capture the intensely human and personal suffering of Christ rejected. This is Handel at his most moving and sorrowful, as in the chorus, “Behold the Lamb of God,” which begins Part II. A tragic mood is sustained in the following aria for alto, “He was despised.” After the death of Christ, the events surrounding the Resurrection are presented with rapid and irresistible momentum, musically confirming that humankind’s history had been accelerating to this momentous event. Having touched us deeply with music of sublime pathos, Handel gives vent to outrage in the bass aria, “Why do the nations so furiously rage together?”

Having explored and expressed the gamut of human agony, Handel ends Part II with the much-loved “Hallelujah!” chorus. Resplendent in gleaming D-major — a key used by composers before and since Handel to convey triumph and glory — the “Hallelujah!” chorus brings the “act” to a brilliant and optimistic close. 

How, then, to proceed? It speaks to Handel’s dramatic genius that he could provide a third part that would not suffer the charge of anticlimax after so rousing an experience. He wisely eschewed the drums-and-trumpets glory of “Hallelujah!” and began Part III with a serenely beautiful soprano aria, “I know that my redeemer liveth.” Here, Handel establishes a redemptive theme that courses through the remainder of the work. Ever the man of the theater, however, he takes time for dramatic contrast and virtuosity in the brilliant “And the trumpet shall sound,” a veritable mini-concerto for solo trumpet and bass soloist cast as a da capo aria. The work concludes with a rapt and beatific “Amen” chorus.  

Steven Lowe © 2006, revised 2025