Messiah

Handel’s “Messiah” outlines the central message of the Christian story of salvation: the prophecy and incarnation of Jesus, his Passion, death and Resurrection, and the promise of his return. Handel, the great musical dramatist, unfolds the events with theatrical force and moving empathy. At the centre are the Passion and Resurrection in the second part; for these the librettist Charles Jennens drew largely on metaphorical texts from the Old Testament, turning to the New Testament only in the third part.

In keeping with the central importance of the Passion, Handel always programmed “Messiah” during Lent or at Easter, whereas today the work is mostly heard in the weeks before Christmas. On 19 March 2016, 273 years after the London premiere in March 1743, it returned to its original place: the Bach Consort Wien under Rubén Dubrovsky performed the oratorio in the abbey church of Klosterneuburg, with the Bachchor Salzburg and the soloists Hanna Herfurtner, Gaia Petrone, Michael Schade and Christian Immler.

After sold-out Easter concerts at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna in 2014 and 2015, it was the third Easter concert of the Bach Consort Wien and the first at Klosterneuburg Abbey.