Messiah

“The second performance of the ‘Messiah’ by the Trinity choirs attracted a crowded audience, and was, as we had expected, a great improvement on the first, the preparations for which were necessarily much hurried.  Considering the number of the performers, the fidelity to the most trustworthy musical traditions exhibited in the general spirit of the performance, and the excellent style in which the grand oratorio was interpreted throughout, we doubt whether the ‘Messiah’ has ever  been so satisfactorily and worthily brought out in this country.

    The effect of Dr. Pech’s vigorous and conscientious training was, of course, especially visible in the choral passages, as to whose execution we have little save praise to bestow.  The soloists, however, sang with more ease and freedom, and left little to be desired.  Miss Brainerd, Miss Phillips, Miss Sterling, Mr. Thomas and Mr. Perring were all in their best voice, and interpreted the music assigned them with far more than literal fidelity.  We have no space to-day for a more detailed criticism of the performance, but will simply add that its conduct by Dr. Pech will add to the reputation of a gentleman who in London has received the most unqualified commendation from the highest musical authorities of that city, for his management of similar performances there.  We congratulate Trinity on its acquisition of so thorough and accomplished a leader, and congratulate him on the hearty and generous support he has received from the clergy of the parish, especially from Dr. Young, the chairman of the committee of management.”

"Heard for the hundredth time, such a work as Handel’s Messiah would retain its impressiveness, and he would be venturesome who would undertake to declare and [e.g., any] scored masterpiece, old or modern, superior to it in the grandest elements of music, the choral one especially. We have heard of a criticism which condemns alike Handel and Mozart as obsolete—the former for his recitative, the latter for his melody!—but this censoriousness can only belong to the Saurian period; and we reconsign it to the fossils. No modernisation of taste, Meyerbeered, or Wagnerized, or Verdified, is calculated to make the serious mind of music forget that apart from the stage, and its worldly bedazzlements, exists a high sanctuary of harmonic thought whereof Handel is the high priest . The Messiah belongs to musical holy writ. It is a choral Gospel, every note of which, imbued with the praise and pathos of its sacred theme, is mightiest Scripture. So we hold that, independent of its musical absoluteness, Handel’s Messiah is one of the most majestic voices of the church and of religion. The bare text of the gospel is poetic, but uttered by such a preacher as Handel, it is irresistibly eloquent; and believers in music and in religion will find themselves nearer agreed than ever in awe of the beautiful story which, in this instance, is alike the genius of Christianity and music.

The Messiah has been produced twice this season, once at Steinway’s Hall, and again at St. John’s Chapel, where it was repeated last evening—in both cases with many of the same elements, but in the last performance with a more various and extensive array of choristers and instruments than have been gathered for years in chapel or hall of the New World.  The latest rendering, that of last night at St. John’s Church, is as much an improvement on its immediate predecessor as in clearness and breadth, if not in positive emphasis it seemed the superior of the others.  Self-sustainingly and in good time, at command of Dr. Pech’s resolute and careful baton, it unfolded itself like so much revelation.  Of few of the choruses could it be said that they were taken too slowly; but it must have been remarked that they were in general a combination of fuller and more distinct vocal contrasts than we have heard hitherto, while the effective unity of the masses left us very little to desire.  The great fugual [sic] chorus, ‘And he shall purify,’ was finely timed, and less cannot be said of the succeeding chorus, ‘For unto us a child is born,’ which, gathering grandeur to its close, unrolls a mightier emphasis than that of ocean billows.  In the same way we must praise the bright energy with which ‘Lift up your heads’ was spirited into a choral utterance of the noblest kind.  The Hallelujah, better than we have heart it hitherto, was a musician-like performance worthy of this grandest of choruses.  The recitatives were exceedingly well given, Mr. Thomas singing the air of ‘The people that walked,’ and the recitative and air, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ with an expressive dignity that was unexpected; and Mr. Ernest Perring gracefully delivering a share of considerable interest.  By far the ablest and most effective soli of the evening were those by the lady vocalists, Miss Brainerd acquitting herself with a grace almost equal to that of Madame Parepa in the beautiful air of ‘Come unto him;’ Miss Phillips, with a voice of fine volume, exhibiting all the pathos of the air, ‘He shall feed his flock,’ and Miss Sterling’s grave and melting contralto giving fine expression to that tenderest of all oratorio airs, ‘He was despised.’  The chorus following Miss Brainerd’s recitative, beginning, ‘There were shepherds,” and concluding with ‘And suddenly,’ should obviously have been taken with more instant vigor, and had the last line of the recitative been sung with some of Madame Rosa’s thrilling spontaneity, the effect would have been greatly improved.  The conductor of the performance, Dr. James Pech does not lack the prestige of European education and reputation, having studied under Chopin and Czerny, and been joint conductor with Benedict in London; and it is but just to say that his direction, last evening, was altogether worthy of his experience.”     

“The Festival of the Trinity Choirs has proved very successful financially.  At the last performance of the Messiah there were upwards of two thousand persons present, and the receipts amounted to over $3,000.”