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Title: Overproduced!
Review: There are many brilliant moments within this recording including some of the solos, BUT the use of too much brass and an organ give it too much of a 'production number' feel. {My experience with The Messiah includes singing it on stage at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall ~30 times total among other venues - as a bass section member.} While not a true purist in that all the choral members be male [ala boy sopranos and altos...] a harpsichord, limited brass and a fairly small orchestra is better suited to the baroque music and renditions which are supposed to be emotive, evocative and spiritual. This rendition is just too far into the big, brassy and bassy is better zone!
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