On 15 Jan 2007 at 18:48, John Howell wrote: > At 5:57 PM -0500 1/15/07, David W. Fenton wrote: > >On 15 Jan 2007 at 17:22, John Howell wrote: > > > >> At 7:45 PM +0100 1/15/07, Johannes Gebauer wrote: > >> > > >> >That is not to say there were no larger orchestral performances. > >> >Handel's Messiah is a good example. > >> > >> Oh?? I doubt his orchestra was more than 20, and about the same > >> for his chorus. Mozart was the first to start expanding the size > >> of the Messiah orchestra. Handel's was string band, oboes, > >> trumpet (or was it 2?), and probably bassoon in addition to basso > >> continuo. > > > >I don't have the references handy, but I'm pretty sure there was at > >least one performance of Messiah in Handel's lifetime with Handel's > >participation where the orchestra and chorus were both large in the > >modern sense, i.e., 100+ players and 200+ singers. But I can't find > >any citation for that (though I didn't look too hard). > > Well, the work was premiered in Dublin by a church choir (which still > exists and is extraordinarily proud of their ancestors' honor!!), but > I suppose it's possible that the choral society approach may have been > started while Handel was still alive. Amateur singers, of course. > (Professional orchestras couldn't get along without 'em!)
As I believe Johannes or Kim said (in reference to the Haydn oratorios), these kinds of gargantuan performances in the 18th century were very often benefit concerts. And I don't know that it was any kind of regular thing -- in fact, I believe it was *rare* in that period, and while it certainly indicates what was *conceivable* then, it is no indication of what was *customary*. That is, just because Handel once presented Messiah with 300 people onstage doesn't mean that it should be presented that way in modern times. Nor does the rarity of it for Handel preclude doing so, either -- what matters are the results, not how many performers there are. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
