George Frideric Handel - The Messiah

Haendel was 50 years old when he composed his first oratorios and these are the works that, three centuries later, will inscribe his name in the pantheon of the greatest classical masters.

He wrote his Messiah based on a libretto by Charles Jennens, which was inspired not by a complete narrative but by fragments of the Old and New Testaments. His choice of language naturally went to the english: the work would then be more accessible to the public! This was indeed the goal of all of Handel's oratorios: a "mainstream" music, from all backgrounds, a music capable of challenging and even dazzling the most common of mortals. The day of the premiere, the whole public even got up to ovation the Alleluia (a tradition still going on in the United Kingdom), a clear proof of the power of this work.
 
And who else besides Guy Van Waas and his Agrémens to interpret this monumental work destined as much to the general public as to the experts among us?

Les Agrémens

Guy Van Waas (direction)