The National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington Chorus present “Messiah,” orchestrated by Eugene Goossens.
Where: The Kennedy Center Concert Hall
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday
Info: $20 to $85; 202-467-4600; kennedy-center.org
Nigel Boon, the director of artistic planning for the National Symphony Orchestra, requests audiences and performers forget the way they have learned to play and listen to the “Messiah.”
This will make for a very interesting experience as the NSO, the Washington Chorus and five soloists present the Goossens Edition of Handel’s magnificent oratorio, starting Thursday at the Kennedy Center.
“The historically informed performance has shown us how the music of Handel was likely to have been performed in his time, but this orchestration was made fifty years ago,” Boon said. “We now have to remember that the ‘Messiah’ was frequently — and actually in Handel’s own time — adapted to specific venues and available performers, and that larger versions and orchestrations such as [Goossens] enjoyed great currency in the 19th and early 20th centuries.”
These four concerts mark the National Symphony Orchestra’s first performances of the Goosens Edition of the “Messiah” with vastly expanded orchestration.
The percussion section alone calls for snare drum, triangle, cymbals, suspended cymbal and bass drum.
“If you compare the instrumentations, the version we are doing this year includes: three flutes, one doubling on piccolo; four oboes, one doubling on English horn; two clarinets, one doubling on bass clarinet; three bassoons, one doubling on contra bassoon; four horns; two trumpets; three trombones; tuba, timpani, harp and a full compliment of strings,” Patricia O’Kelly, managing director of media relations for the NSO said. “The chorus also gets bigger, otherwise they wouldn’t be heard.”
There are no new parts, just more vocalists singing them.
Soloists include soprano Elza Van Den Heever, contralto, Meredith Arwady, tenor Jason Collins and bass-baritone, Julian Wachner. The Washington Chorus will perform under the direction of Julian Wachner with conductor Rossen Milanov at the podium.
Not for the faint of heart, these Goossens “Messiah” performances will run approximately two hours and 30 minutes including the intermission.
“I would ask [audiences] to come with a sense of adventure,” Boon said.
“They will hear the ‘Messiah’ in all it’s glory, but they will hear it as they have never heard it before.”
