Handel's Oratorios
SIR,—" For nearly two centuries the vocal music of Handel has been represented in England, for all practical purposes, by one work—Messiah." In response to Mr. Court's. enquiry, in the Spectator of November 18th, may I say that this sentence belongs not In My book, The Oratorios of Handel, but to your reviewer's notice of the book. At the same time, while aware of numerous exceptional performances, I would not dissent from your reviewer's opinion which, with its qualification, is as true as a generalisation can be. A recent article in a provincial newspaper shows the Handelian situation as generally it is. Of the oratorios other than Messiah, says the writer, "I can recall, during the dozen or so years since I protested in these columns against their unaccountable neglect in a choral-singing district, one performance of Israel in Egypt (to a hall three-quarters empty) and one of ludas Maccabeus."—Yours
Road, Wolverhampton.
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