Thirty years ago conductor Marin Alsop was chatting with friends in New York. “They asked what I was up to,” she says. “I told them, ‘Handel’s Messiah’. They said ‘The one where the audience stand up for the Hallelujah Chorus at the end? I like that bit but it takes too long until that happens!”
Why not try an update, thought Alsop. “I had always wanted to reimagine it – it lends itself to lots of different feels, and I wanted new audiences to hear the piece.” The 1741 work has been endlessly embellished, tweaked and reimagined, even by Handel himself. Mozart was commissioned to rewrite it with more woodwind. While Handel’s original choir had numbered 20 or so and the orchestra not many more, by the 1850s, there were performances with thousands of singers and nearly 500 musicians. In 1992, Quincy Jones rethought it as the Grammy-winning A Soulful Celebration – and its Hallelujah Chorus is one of the world’s most instantly recognisable (and most memed) pieces of classical music. This month – like every December – there are performances all over the world from Philadelphia to Paris and Perth - both Scotland’s and Australia’s.
Marin Alsop rehearses the BBC Concert Orchestra, the big band, and the choir (the London Adventist Chorale with the BBC Symphony Chorus) at Henry Wood Hall, London SE1. Middle right: South African tenor soloist Zwakele Tshabalala with Karin Hendrickson, who is assisting Marin Alsop.
“I got together with Bob Christianson and Gary Anderson who wrote for my swing band,” continues Alsop. “I gave them a score. I think they probably knew the Hallelujah Chorus . I told them “I want to reimagine Messiah. I want to preserve its integrity but update it. They were both, ‘you want to WHAT? And you want us to do WHAT?’”
Top: Saxophonist Sam Mayne. Bottom: The choir is made up of singers from the London Adventist Chorale and the BBC Symphony Chorus
Alsop and her collaborators cut part three of Handel’s lengthy oratorio, so that their version ends with the Hallelujah Chorus and thus tells the Christmas story. “We wrote for just two soloists – there wasn’t the budget for all four! Handel’s original instrumentation is small – strings, some woodwind, harpsichord. We took out the winds and added saxes, five, plus a Hammond organ, electric guitar, drums and piano.”
The DNA of the piece remains the same, but the melodies, the harmonies, the instrumentation are all treated differently.
Swing, shuffle, jazz and blues as well as gospel are part of the mix, as well as scatting and improvisation. “Of course the Hallelujah Chorus had to be a gospel number.” The work begins, though, with the overture exactly as Handel wrote it – before the rhythm section kicks in. “I don’t want people to know right away that it’s different, let’s start the same and gradually work our way into it.”
The work – cheekily titled Too Hot to Handel – was premiered in 1993 in the Lincoln Center, New York. “People went crazy. They loved it,” says Alsop. “We did it for 10 or 15 years in New York and it’s been performed around the US every year since. The audiences are really mixed – it’s a celebration of diversity and I love that.”
The cameras were at the Albert Hall recording the concert for transmission Christmas 2024 on the BBC and also PBS. It will be broadcast on Radio 3 on 12 December and then on BBC Sounds. Bottom right: Tenor Zwakele Tshabalala.
This time last year I was also here at the Albert Hall also doing Messiah, a straight version with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. When Marin asked me to do this I said of course. Then she said, ah, yes, but this is something different. A gospel jazz version. She sent me some clips and I was like, whaaaaaat? Two weeks ago I was with English National Opera singing La Traviata. I’m classically trained and I sing what’s on the page. This is way way out of my comfort zone. Improvising? Scatting? It’s all new to me, but it’s as exciting as it is challenging and I’m loving how different it all is. You can still hear the original Handel, there’s just more swing and more soul to it.
Zwakele Tshabalala
Ken Burton (below, at the piano) has been conducting the London Adventist Chorale since 1990. “Our members come from all over – as far afield as the Sussex coast, York and Lincolnshire. There’s 28 of the almost 96-strong choir singing here tonight ranging from 17 to 64. The youngest, Abigail, is doing her A-levels and had to get permission from her school to be at this afternoon’s rehearsal! The rest of the singers are from the BBC Symphony Chorus.
A lot of music of Black origin has a very complicated rhythm and to get the feel requires a particular approach to make it sound natural. Singers from traditional classical backgrounds sing the notes in the places where they expect them to be. They have to learn how to loosen up! And yes, normally I’m waving my arms around at the front of the choir but tonight I’m singing with them. It’s rare I get to do that – I love it and didn’t want to miss the opportunity.”
Ken Burton principal conductor of the London Adventist Chorale and soloist Vanessa Haynes practice before the performance. Below: in a break from his usual conducting Burton (middle front) is singing as part of his own choir today
Vanessa Haynes (above, and below) is the second of the two soloists. “I was born in Trinidad and grew up in the church singing choral and gospel before branching out into secular music and jazz. All I ever wanted to do was come to London and sing; I made my way here via India, China and Singapore, working as a jazz singer in hotels. Handel’s works were played in my house when I was young – my parents are religious, and when I was 16 or 17 a group of us discovered Quincy Jones’s version of the Messiah, but I’d not come across this before. I love it. The arrangers have done a fantastic job in making the material accessible to new audiences. I’m sure that Handel would have wanted that. But no, I’ve not sung his music before. Does this whet my appetite? What a question! Let’s see how it goes tomorrow night ... !”
Violinist Nathaniel Anderson-Frank (below) is the leader of the BBC Concert Orchestra. “I grew up in Canada with singalong versions of Messiah – the work is part of the seasonal offering there just as it is here, and I’ve played many times. Handel really knew string instruments and his music is lovely to perform. This is huge fun because of what the arrangers have retained of the original. The bones of Handel are very recognisable, the text is preserved and the melodic content is there, it feels organic, rather than like some kind of sauce that’s been slapped over the original baroque music.
Trumpeter Dave McCallum (above) has been with the BBCCO for 27 years. “Our life is hugely varied. Last week we did a show with Clare Teal and the BBC Singers, next week we’re recording Call the Midwife and just after Christmas we’re off to China with soprano Danielle de Niese. Do I have a favourite moment in the Messiah? The end! No, seriously – there are so many amazing bits. I love the quieter moments but the Hallelujah Chorus is undeniably a good romp. Handel’s template is so robust that you can do almost anything with it. And yes, the purists will probably object, but they can get lost!”
Audiences always stand for the Hallelujah Chorus, a tradition almost as old as the work itself. Legend has it that during a performance in London in the mid 1750s, King George II was so moved he stood up during this number. Everyone rose to join him and so we still all do. Others more prosaically inclined have suggested it was merely a case of pins and needles or gout that got the King to his feet, or maybe he simply wanted to stretch his legs.
“It’s one of the most popular pieces of music ever created. It achieves great effects by simple means” writes Jonathan Keates in his biography of Handel. “Like Shakespeare’s plays, Messiah’s resilience is such that it has taken a place among those works which every epoch moulds to its own fancies and desires.”
I’m of the opinion that there are two kinds of music, good and bad, like Duke Ellington always said. Sometimes classical music takes itself way too seriously. It’s wonderful to be at a concert where people can clap their hands and stand up and dance if they want. And yes, I probably will be dancing on the podium. I can’t help it in this piece! Marin Alsop
The European premiere of the Gospel Messiah is broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds on 12 December at 7.30pm and will be available on demand for 30 days.
