Handel’s Messiah with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is touted as a “Christmas tradition”, and so it is. It is interesting to read, however, that although the orchestra was founded in 1906, it wasn’t until Christmas Day 1940 that the MSO under Sir Bernard Heinze gave its first performance of this perennial favourite. (Messiah had been the traditional preserve of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic which had been giving performances of it since 1853, and still does.)

Back in 1940 there was little doubt as to how this most popular of oratorios should be performed. Since then, the growth of “historically informed” performance practice has led to a divergence of approaches ranging from “early music” to “blockbuster”; this last category often employing the over-the-top re-orchestrations of Eugene Goossens or the MSO’s own Sir Andrew Davis.

On this occasion the MSO has opted for Handel’s original orchestration, using medium-sized forces, sufficient to fill Hamer Hall. The middle-of-the-road approach to stylistic matters adopted by Dutch conductor, Jan Willem de Vriend reflects the challenges of pulling together a performance of this rather long work at this time of the year, within the constraints of the artists’ and orchestra’s...