Each year at this time, we devote an entire program to a performance of G.F. Handel's Messiah. This Thursday night we'll have the reading by Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy and Chorus of St. Martin in the Fields of the 1743 London score. This was the oratorio as Handel himself conducted it after a Dublin premiere of the previous year. Handel was still tinkering with the piece, and there are a few variants from the Messiah that we have come to know, most of them -- but not all -- quite subtle.
Whether you want see how many differences you can pick out, or whether you'd just like to listen to a traditional favorite, this is a version for all seasons -- but especially this one.