Episode
Handel's Messiah
- Podcast
- In Our Time
- Published
- May 7, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3245
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002tptk
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Summary
Misha Glenny and his guests discuss the most famous oratorio of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and his librettist Charles Jennens (1700-1773). For his libretto, Jennens drew from Old and New Testament texts: prophecies about the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, the nativity, the suffering of Christ and his death and the Day of Judgement and redemption for all. Handel's Messiah had its premiere in 1742 in a secular Dublin music hall to great acclaim with a packed audience and Handel continued to adapt his Messiah for later performances, often shaping the work to the choirs or individual singers available. Messiah proved to be one of his most popular works, becoming a favourite of massed choirs around the world far beyond the scale of Handel’s original. With Donald Burrows Emeritus Professor of Music at the Open University Ruth Smith Trustee and Council Member of the Handel Institute And Larry Zazzo Countertenor, and Senior Lecturer in Music at Newcastle University Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Donald Burrows, Messiah (full score, 2 vols, Hallische Händel Ausgabe, forthcoming) Donald Burrows, Messiah (Edition Peters, 1987) Donald Burrows, Messiah, Cambridge Music Handbooks (Cambridge University Press, 1991) Donald Burrows, Handel: Master Musicians series, 2nd edition (Oxford University Press, 2012) George Frideric Handel (ed. Donald Burrows et al.), Collected Documents vol. 3 (1734-42), vol 4 (1742-50), (Cambridge University Press, 2019, 2020) G.F. Handel, facsimile ‘Messiah’: the composer’s autograph manuscript (British Library, 2009) G.F. Handel, facsimile the composer’s Conducting Score of Messiah (Scolar Press, 1974) Arthur Holroyd, Reassuring 18th-Century Protestants: The Librettist’s Intended Message for Handel’s ‘Messiah’ (Quacks Books, 2018) Charles Ki…