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Music Review

Harry Christophers, chorus earn hallelujahs for ‘Messiah’

By Jeffrey Gantz

 |  Globe correspondent  

  December 03, 2011

Like “The Nutcracker,’’ Handel’s “Messiah’’ is a seasonal staple whose beginnings were less than auspicious. Handel wrote it at a time of declining health and declining fortunes in England, and though the April 1742 premiere, in Dublin, was a success, the London performances the following year were not. The work wasn’t even conceived as a Christmas oratorio: part one celebrates the birth of Jesus, but part two, which ends with the “Hallelujah!’’ chorus, takes up the Easter narrative, and part three draws on the Anglican burial service in its assurance of the Resurrection.

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