Perspective: Three performances from three gifted orchestras made this “Messiah” marathon a shortcut to holiday cheer
They say you can’t force the Christmas spirit. To that I say: Watch me. Determined to feel something festive this year, I decided to go all in on the “Messiah,” attending three full performances of Handel’s 1741 masterpiece by three orchestras in one week: the New York Philharmonic , the National Symphony Orchestra and the National Philharmonic .
Each soloist found a compelling path through the music: Soprano Sherezade Panthaki soared in her Part III air , Swedish tenor Leif Aruhn-Solén lent distinctly steely colors to his invocation of the iron rod and Cree-Métis baritone Jonathon Adams, who identifies as two-spirit , impressed with a barrel-round sound and an arresting presence — especially in their Part III dialogue with Matthew Muckey’s pristine trumpet.
Two nights later, lines from the New York Phil performance were blinking in my head like strands of lights as the National Symphony Orchestra took the festively bedecked Kennedy Center stage with the Choral Arts Society of Washington — an 80-40 split that consumed the available space.My last encounter with the “Messiah” here was in 2021, when Gianandrea Noseda led the NSO, the University of Maryland Concert Choir and soloists from the Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artists program.
Not listed on the program were the three or four neighbors around me in the audience who were staging their own unwittingly audible private performances. Grinchily, I sneered at first — but then caught myself and smiled politely.
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