Linn Records have re-released their award-winning recording of Messiah – on vinyl. A retrograde step, marketing gimmick or act of genius?
Recordings of Handel's Messiah pepper the recording catalogues like bullets from a Baroque Oozy so, in order to stand out, a recording needs to put its head above the parapet in order to get attention. Linn's recording of the Dublin version (1742) certainly had the critics falling over themselves to heap praise on the finished product. Indeed this Messiah, performed by the Dunedin Consort and Players under the direction of John Butt, won the Classic FM Gramophone Award in the Baroque Vocal category last year. It was also the label's fastest selling recording of 2006 so, in a nutshell, it's a Messiah which comes with a prize-pedigree attached.
So, this year Linn have taken the unusual step of releasing this award-winning recording on luxury 180-gram vinyl – due to "remarkable customer demand". Quite who these customers are remains a mystery for not only was I the only musicOMH.com reviewer with the technology to review it but when the boxed-LP set arrived at work it was a shock to receive a hefty 12 inches of Handel. My first reaction was "How did I ever buy the Ring Cycle on vinyl", followed by consternation as to why anyone could possibly want vinyl over CD. A CD-recording of Messiah can easily fit into your backpack but this proved really cumbersome – especially on the Northern Line at rush hour.
Having said that, I was quite excited – it seemed a relic from a bygone age had arrived and a wave of nostalgia flooded over me. I almost felt like recording it onto tape and listening to it on my Walkman on the way to the tube the next morning. Almost. The performance lives up to the plaudits it's received. Although I've not followed it with Novello score in hand there are some subtle, and a few non-too subtle changes from the standard performing version of Messiah. There are no "star" soloists but all perform admirably with particularly eloquent singing coming from the contralto Clare Wilkinson. Her "He was despised" is the highlight of the recording and by using only four voices to a part in the chorus, the choral writing has an immediacy and accuracy that is not always the case on other recordings.
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