Handel's Messiah - Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

Handel's Messiah
Royal Liverpool Philharonic Orchestra

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

Quite by accident, I have built up affinity with George Frideric Handel. First there was my visit to the Handel and Hendrix museum in 2016. I was only really there for the Hendrix, but thought I might as well take in the Handel while I was there. Then someone tells me Handel stopped at Parkgate on his way back from Dublin. Then I learn from my local history group about the Foundling Museum in London - and when I visit I find that it just happens to have a unique Handel collection on its top floor (he was a big donor to the Foundling Hospital).

So a natural next step and rite of passage for a curious listener is to go and see a 'Messiah live,' as it were, to see what all the fuss is about. I am led to believe they put one on every year at the Liverpool Phil, as a bit of a New Year tradition. Will I make it mine?

One of the very few remaining seats available to book is A1, so I go for that. 

As I take my seat, I get to thinking about the other titans I have been fortunate to witness on that stage: Rumours of Fleetwood Mac, Ken Dodd, and the great Gilbert O'Sullivan. To name just a few. But I have not seen the stage like this before - it goes back a fair old way, with lots of wooden benches. The choir start spilling out and, I say, they must be nigh on eighty strong. The orchestra itself looks to be not a 'full' orchestra, as we know it, but maybe one (I suppose) that is of a smaller Baroque configuration?

What to comment about the music itself? It's wholesome fare, I must say. By the interval I'm pleasantly contented, though feeling a trifle peckish. Ought I to purchase a small tub of Cornish ice cream? I ought not, for I shall be grabbing a Maccies on the drive home.  

The second half sustains all the quality of the first, and I concede that the man was a genius, if only for being able to hold my attention for that length of time. There is, of course, just one interjection remaining: Hallelujah!*

*And one thing I wasn’t prepared for is that we all stood up for that bit.