Director Harry Christopher,
feeling welcomed. Image by
Stu Rosner
HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY’S 156TH ANNUAL PERFORMANCE OF HANDEL’S MESSIAH WILL BE BROADCAST LOCALLY AND NATIONALLY
December 14, 2009 (Boston, Mass.) — The Handel and Haydn Society’s 156th annual performances of Handel Messiah (December 4-6, 2009), marking Harry Christophers’ first appearance this season as conductor during his inaugural year as Artistic Director, was recorded and will be broadcast in its entirety on WGBH All Classical 99.5 FM on December 20, 2009 at 2pm local time (www.wgbh.org/995; “Listen Live”). This continues a tradition that started in 1978, when WGBH Radio locally broadcast the Handel and Haydn Society’s Messiah for the first time. Radio host Brian Bell’s interview with Christophers will also air.
On December 21, American Public Media (APM) will broadcast excerpts from the Society’s Messiah, along with a conversation between APM radio producer Suzanne Schaffer and Harry Christophers on Performance Today (http://performancetoday.publicradio.org/), one of America’s most popular classical music radio programs, with more than 1.2 million weekly listeners on 237 stations around the country (See the Performance Today national schedule.). In mid-December, both Messiah and interview excerpts will also air on the nationally syndicated program Classical 24 (http://classical24.publicradio.org/) that reaches 250 stations and 2.5 million weekly listeners.
Handel and Haydn’s 156th performance of Messiah featured the Society returns of acclaimed countertenor Daniel Taylor and charismatic tenor Tom Randle, along with the debut appearances of celebrated artists soprano Suzie LeBlanc and bass-baritone Matthew Brook. Christophers plans to conduct Messiah throughout his tenure as Artistic Director with the Handel and Haydn Society. The Society first performed Messiah selections on December 25, 1815. In 1818, the Society premiered its complete performance of Messiah, and since 1854 has performed the work in its entirety every year, establishing an annual Boston tradition.
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