‘Messiah’ more than merriment

The London premiere of George Frideric Handel’s sacred oratorio “Messiah” was witnessed March 23, 1743, in Covent Garden Theatre. When a nobleman complimented Handel on providing London with such fine entertainment, the composer replied: “My Lord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them; I wished to make them better.”

Seven years later, the composer decided to give a concert to help complete the chapel at the newly constructed Foundling Hospital. The public responded with unprecedented enthusiasm, and on the day of the performance, subscribers, ticket-holders and gate-crashers arrived on foot, in sedan chairs and in some 500 coaches. Once inside and seated they witnessed an impressive sight: singers from the Chapel Royal, a splendid orchestra, three Italian divas — Frasi, Passerini, and Galli — and Handel himself at the organ and directing the entire performance.

Last week, another enthusiastic public – this time at Saint Thomas Church, on Fifth Avenue in New York – filed down the aisles of the impressive stone structure and waited in the pews for “Messiah” to be performed by the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys and Concert Royal.

For many in the audience, the concert has become an annual event. Saint Thomas Church is one of the finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture in the United States, and the acoustical marvels of the 1913 building are associated with churches built of the same materials and in the same way during the Middle Ages. Thus, the performance is billed as “an experience hard to surpass in New York.”

To that I can attest … for seated behind one of those towering columns and in front of the nave vault rising 95 feet above the floor, I sat motionless – with a tear-stained face – through more than three hours of musical mastery.

It was exactly as a contributor wrote to the “Daily Advertiser” after the London premiere of Handel’s “Messiah”: “To harmony like his, celestial power is given to exalt the soul from earth, and make of hell a heaven.”

The only time, in fact, I was not motionless was when – all at once with trumpet and tympani sound – the introduction to the “Hallelujah” began and more than 1,000 of us in the audience rose to our feet for the mighty and spirited chorus rendition from “Revelation.”

And the harmony did indeed “exalt the soul.”

The Saint Thomas Choir is considered by major critics both here and abroad to be the outstanding choral ensemble of the Anglican musical tradition in the United States today.

The men of the choir are professional singers; the boys – from 8 to 14 – attend The Saint Thomas Choir School, the only church-related residential choir school in the country.

Concert Royal, founded in 1974, has been in the forefront of the Baroque and Classic revival in the United States.

Combine them the week before Christmas in perhaps the consummate setting for their unique and exquisite sound, and those of us in pews, in balconies, and partially hidden behind massive stone pillars received an unforgettable blessing.

Handel would surely not have been displeased. As he had hoped, his “Messiah” did not merely entertain. It made us better.