Customer Reviews for Messiah
StarStrong
Location: from Boulder, CO
Difficulty Level:
Intermediate/advanced
December 6, 2011
a surprise
Nice edition but I was surprised to see that the whole thing was hand-written! No Finale used here!
9 of 20 people found this review helpful.
Russell McKinney
Location: from Salt Lake City, UT
Difficulty Level:
Intermediate/advanced
March 17, 2009
Please Rengrave!
While there is little to argue about as to the scholarship of Mr. Watkins work, I have two problems with this continuo book. First is while it is indeed possible that a couple of the recitatives would have been accompanied only by strings in Handel's time, it is impossible to say that certain ones always were performed thusly and therefore the absence of realised figured bass continuo for those few (instead a simple "tacet" in their place) creates more work for those wanting to add the keyboard part. Much easier to subtract something you have, than add what you have not. But more importantly, in this age of excellent and easy to use computer engraving programs, it is really unnecessary to have a contiuo/organ part that is a barely legible hand-written job that has been photostatically reprduced into a book. Really, Novello should have this re-engraved for future editions.
16 of 29 people found this review helpful.
Anonymous
Location: from
Difficulty Level:
Intermediate/advanced
November 28, 2007
Already used it once!
Bought this item specifically for a performance. It's very straight forward and a great framework to work from. The indication of harpsichord and organ is helpful in deciding tone colours for each song, but can still be adjusted according to personal taste. We had both organ and harpsichord for our performance in some choruses. So nice to be playing from a continuo part instead of the orchestral reduction! It really fills out the harmony in some of the recits and arias. Well worth it.
11 of 24 people found this review helpful.
Eric
Location: from Poughkeepsie, NY
Difficulty Level:
Intermediate/advanced
July 5, 2007
Usefulness cannot be overstated
This continuo part for Handel's Messiah is incredibly useful in performances with orchestra and organ/harpsichord. I've used it 3 times before, and find the creativity in the continuo realization quite satisfying, even when practicing alone. It works very well in ensemble, and is very useful when the organist may not have much experience realizing continuo from full printed score.
13 of 27 people found this review helpful.