Handel's Messiah

Handel's "Immortal Masterpiece". The Messiah, differed little from the usual mammoth performance accorded it at Christ mas-time each year, but a welcome improvement in choral diction was evident—the words, oddly enough, are worth hearing—in that such phrases as "the glory of the law" and the "erniquity of ussall" were absent. (Listeners will recall similar perversions of the English language that have the sanction of long usage to incorporate them as part of the text.) There was also a general lightening of the tonal texture, despite the size of the choir, which ensured greater clarity: it cannot be necessary for the male members of choirs to use the full power of their lungs all the time—vocal straining and loss of quality are the inevitable results, to say nothing of the performance in toto. This "Messiah" will prove. I hope, to be an Indication of better choral singing to come.

The Proms

In Julie Clarke we have a potentially great pianist. Her reading of the Mozart A-major Concerto was mature, sensitive and, despite some lapses of memory, convincing. Her control of staccato should be a model to every aspiring pianist. The only fault I have to find was the heavy underlining of every note in the Siciliano movement—overphrasing is one of the lesser sins, but it can lead to artistic pedantry if not curbed early in one's career. (A case in point is Schweitzer's organ-playing.)

The Brahms Symphony No. 1 in the same programme lacked both sostenuto and staying-power in the first two movements, but the last movement was a joy to hear—the orchestra goes from strength to strength in its reading of the orchestral classics. I hope there will be more opportunities to hear Brahms thus well performed in the coming symphony concert season.