Handel: Messiah

I went to see Messiah performed live at Colstan Hall, Bristol last night, with my Mom and some of her work mates.

WOW LIKE WOAH. Seriously.

I think I have discoverd a love for live classical music! It was gorgeous from beginning to end!

The orchestra was made up of seven violins, two violas, two celli, a (fucking huge) bass, two oboes, a basoon, two trumpets, timpani and a harpsichord.

The choir was the Bristol Choral Society and the four soloits wereSian Winstanley for Soprano, Buddug Verona James for Mezzo Soprano, Huw Rys Evens for Tenor and Arwel Huw Morgan for Bass.

The Conductor was Adrian Partington (who also plays piano and organ and is a chorus master).

They performed the whole thing, from the opening Overture to the final Amen, with an interval halfway through, between 'His yoke is easy and his burden light' and 'Behold the Lamb of God'.

According to tradtion, when they performed 'Hallelujah' at the end of Part Two, the WHOLE audience stood up, as well as al the performers. It was fantastic ^^

I personally think they should have had more than two brass instruments playing, because they were more than a little lost behind the Choir - and throughout most of his parts, the Timpani player's second drum was off-key (amusingly, between his parts, the poor guy was trying his best to fix the tension - lying across his drum with his ear to the skin, fiddling with the knobbs!)

I find I rather enjoy watching the choir members - there was one particular male singer, in what I'm guessing was the Bass section, who is very dramatic while he sings XD Oh, and the Bass player was also very passionate in her playing - arms-a-flying and so on.

Mum explained the First Violinist's dramatic playing to me after the show (the other violin players were keepingtime with her, rather than the Conductor - which is why she was dramatic in her movements while playing!)

The four soloists were done up to the nines in gorgeous eighteenth century outfits! The two me looked VERY distinguished - and even took it so far as to sit in regal fashion betweentheir pieces. The two women looked gorgeous in their flowing gowns - though at one point, the Soprano nearly hit one of the Cello players with her expansive skirts!





Over-all it was bloody brilliant and I really enjoyed it ^^

Mom has decided she's goingto take me out to see more such performances ^^

I look forward to it!