2010 - 2011

6 November 2010 JENKINS / BACH

4 December 2010 MESSIAH

18/22 December 2010 CAROLS

12 March 2011 ALEXANDER NEVSKY

28 May 2011 SOUTHWELL

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Saturday 4th December 2010 7:00pm Royal Concert Hall HANDEL Messiah Martene Grimson Soprano Andrew Radley Countertenor Richard Edgar-Wilson Tenor Matthew Brook Bass-baritone ORCHESTRA DA CAMERA Organ - Philip White-Jones Conductor - Richard Laing NOTTINGHAM HARMONIC CHOIR Due to illness, Countertenor Andrew Radley was replaced at short notice by Christopher Ainslie Review: Monday 6 December 2010. Nottingham Evening Post VIEWS of Handel's Messiah have changed dramatically during the last 40 years - from the heavy, over-elaborate versions favoured by post-Victorians to a rediscovery of the scintillating celebration Handel devised. Most of the biblical texts he drew on are meditative. Conductor Richard Laing allowed them all the time in the world to flower. But when the music gathers pace, the results can be dazzling. I can't recall a Harmonic performance that has matched Saturday's for immediacy.

The clarity of diction helped greatly, and dynamic contrasts were incisively managed. Recitatives and arias intertwined with the choruses to supreme effect. The tenor soloist gripped from the outset (Comfort Ye).
Each famous air was sung with stylish conviction. And the evening scored a double whammy with the soprano's I Know that My Redeemer Liveth, straight after a Hallelujah Chorus that was an angelic frolic.
This benchmark Messiah was a triumph for Handel.
Peter Palmer

Messiah 2011 will take place at 7:00pm on Saturday 3 December 2011

This concert always comes at the start of Advent, when we are all finally becoming aware that it really isn’t long until Christmas, even though the shops have been anticipating it for months. Come and have an evening to escape from the bustle and let Handel’s glorious music wash over you and renew you.

Handel’s inspired Messiah, written in only 21 days, also looks forward to Christmas, telling the story of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection, through prophetic, narrative and explanatory extracts from the Bible. Although Messiah is the work by which most people in the world know Handel, it is almost a misfit in his output. He was not generally a religious composer and was not employed as a church musician, but rather wrote operas and music for royal occasions. His oratorios appear to be simply operas with religious themes. At the time they were written in England, they were not allowed to be staged nor acted. They could only be performed in a church, not in a theatre.

Handel’s operatic techniques are apparent in Messiah. The choir plays parts ranging from a vituperative mob hurling insults round the Cross to a choir of Angels singing of Jesus’ birth and praising Him in Heaven.

Many of the soloists’ arias are familiar and well-loved, but they make even more impact in the context of the whole work.

If you have never heard the whole of Messiah before, or have only heard versions which are heavily cut and there is no sense of continuity, come and be prepared for a totally different, thrilling, emotional experience!

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Children's Ticket vouchers for concerts in November and March and for Messiah are sent out to as many schools as we can in the area. There are also some vouchers available from on Derby Road in Nottingham, if we have missed your school, or you need more than you have been sent.