Messiah album review – Whelan takes Handel’s oratorio back to its beginnings

Every year, the Irish Baroque Orchestra and their conductor Peter Whelan bring Messiah back to Dublin, the city of its 1742 premiere. Their recording of Handel’s oratorio – the first on period instruments by an Irish ensemble – attempts to recreate the version heard at its first performance at the Fishamble Street music hall, a hot-ticket event at which such a crush was anticipated that the ladies in the audience were requested to forgo hoops in their skirts and the gentlemen to leave their swords at home.

The artwork for Messiah by the Irish Baroque Orchestra.

One of the attractions was the scandal-hit contralto and actor Susannah Cibber, who sang several arias including some more often sung today by other voice types: on the recording, gratifyingly, we get to hear a substantial share for Helen Charlston, her voice firm, slightly metallic and unflaggingly expressive. Also included is a less familiar duet-and-chorus version of How Beautiful Are the Feet, written for two of the countertenors from the Dublin cathedral choirs. Here and elsewhere Alexander Chance is in buoyant voice – he also gets the two arias Handel adapted later for his star castrato in London. Hilary Cronin’s sweet-sounding soprano stands out among the solo voices.

Whelan draws a fleet-footed performance from his orchestra and from a choir of just 13, including all the vocal soloists, their singing light and precise enough to sound almost gossipy in places. Formerly a bassoonist with the OAE and now about to take over from Nicholas McGegan as music director of San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque, Whelan is set to be one of the new leading names in baroque music.

Stream it on Apple Music (above) or on Spotify