Handel's Messiah: Have it Your Way

Slogan-mixing aside, this time of year presents a world of seasonal music opportunities and one of the grand-daddies of them all is The Phoenix Symphony's annual presentation of Handel's Messiah. Year after year, our patrons and their families have made this baroque masterpiece a holiday tradition. But understandably, the wider the variety of people there are who enjoy this masterpiece, the more varied their preferences are in listening to it. The result of this varied demand are three distinct presentations performed in eight concerts over the course of eleven days. This hectic schedule is only appropriate for a composition Handel wrote in a mere 24 days!

Some look forward to hanging on Handel's every note and phrase throughout all three sections of the oratorio, complete with all the varieties of arias, recitatives, and full ensemble sections. For these folks, the complete Messiah is performed twice this season, presenting every note Handel penned. Others are looking for the very best of the Messiah - a meaty "Cliff's Notes" version that can be enjoyed by newcomers and Messiah veterans alike. For them, a shorter collection of the best highlights of the Messiah are presented throughout the Valley.

And finally, there are those who like their music interactive; die-hard Messiah fans who have either performed it in some form in their past, or who have listened to it so many times they can nearly sing every word by heart. Michael Christie invites this particular group of people to our Sing-Along Messiah performance where the audience becomes the performers and the entire gathered community orchestra and chorus will lift one unified voice in a spirited rendition that would surely make Handel proud.

So how will you take your performance of Handel's Messiah? All of it? The best of it? Or in it? All locations and information can be found at phoenixsymphony.org. Celebrate the Christmas music season!