Sir, - A lifetime in classical music had not prepared me for Frank Mc Namara's interpretation of George Frederick Handel's Messiah, which I attended at Dublin's RDS. A lifetime in classical music had, however, prepared me for the vindictive and scurrilous review of the performance in The Irish Times. It reeked of conservatism and fear.
There are aspects of the review, however, which I imagine Handel might have liked. Take the headline, for example: "Handel Meets the Eurovision Song Contest". Handel himself, on the first performance of his Music for the Royal Fireworks in Vauxhall Gardens, increased the forces of his orchestra to include 24 trumpets, 36 oboes and 12 kettledrums - just so that the enormous crowd assembled might be able to hear it. Handel was not averse to the mass appeal and popularity of his work among the common people, and he employed many such techniques to ensure it.
But that is not the real point. In order to assess the true validity of Mr Mc Namara's interpretation, the question one must ask is why Handel chose to write the Messiah in the first place. On this, we do not need the presumptions of The Irish Times critics, or anyone else for that matter, for we have Handel's own words to fall back on: "So that the people might better understand the great message contained therein".
Anyone who professes to be a true lover of the Messiah, or indeed of music itself, would ignore this motive at their peril. It is supported not only in words, but in Handel's own deeds. Over 250 years ago, Handel took the hitherto untouchable and sacred liturgical story of Jesus Christ and set it to music. He did so not as "church music" but in the popular style of the Oratorio. He chose to perform his great work whilst in exile from the court of King George the Third, on a music hall stage in Fishamble Street Dublin. He cast a female singer, an actress, in the role of the Evangelist. (This was done at a time when actors were not permitted to be buried in consecrated ground). He faced an enormous backlash from both Church and State. He did all of this and more for one very simple reason "so that the people might better understand the great message contained therein". The great work's inspiration and purpose was to evangelise - to spread the word of God.
There are those, of course, who prefer their art hanging on the walls of galleries, or stagnating in museums, or presented as meticulous, antique-like recreations in the forbidding atmosphere of concert halls. The so-called lovers of the Messiah referred to in your critique might do well to consider Handel's own motives and be less arrogant in presuming sole custodianship of his great work and, above all, his intention.
Keep spreading the word, Frank. Methinks Handel may have liked it. - Yours, etc.,
Nigel Warrengreen, Principal cellist, and Chairman, London Chamber Orchestra, Cranleigh, Surrey, England.