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Title: All Wrong - And WONDERFUL!
Review: I never had much interest in Messiah but I had long known about this recording. A few years ago I heard a CBC radio feature on Jon Vickers where they played Every Valley. It was one of those rare "What is THAT?" moments that I have had all to rarely in years of playing and listening to music. Finally I bought the recording and listen to it around Christmas every year, and love it more every time.While I appreciate the scholarly concepts behind period performance, I often find it boring in practice. Small orchestra, small choir? What's the point? Give me big, bold and raucous. If you want authentic, hire a bunch of musicians who can't play in tune and hire an unheated hall. I'll take Beecham, the reorchestration, the opera singers and all the inauthenticity one can muster if it produces music-making like this. Strongly recommended.
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