The establishment of Messiah as a venerated English institution for Christmas and Choral Societies has a long and complicated history. A few excerpts are familiar to almost everybody, unlike any other work by its prolific and misunderstood composer. Messiah remains Handel's best known work, although this was not a status that it enjoyed until the last few years of his life, brought about by annual performances in Handel's oratorio seasons and charitable benefit concerts at the Foundling Hospital (an organisation for underprivileged children, and which still exists today as The Thomas Coram Foundation). It was not originally envisaged as a Christmas tradition, but its microcosm of Christian doctrine and faith was intended as a timely thought-provoker for Lent and Easter.
The popularity of the work grew through events such as the Handel Centenary Commemoration (Westminster Abbey, 1784) and huge-scale Victorian epics typified by thousands of performers crammed into the Crystal Palace. All such events progressively strayed further from Handel's musical world, attempting to make choirs and orchestras ridiculously large, often with 'new' parts created for extra instruments. However, ill advised 'improvements' grew to such an extent that by the 19th century editors and conductors had distorted Messiah beyond its Handelian origin. It is such misunderstanding that led Berlioz to describe Handel's music as "a barrel of roast pork and beer" - the French innovator of romanticised orchestration obviously failed to recognise a kindred brilliance that radiates from so much of Handel's original score. The overwhelming popularity of Messiah not only led to a misconception of Handel's musical character and artistic intentions, but also eclipsed almost every other work he composed except the Water Music and Fireworks Music - both also highly un-typical of his orchestral abilities.
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