Messiah - Music you must listen during your life No.1

Some favorite parts of " Messiah ' of  Handel from : http://www.youtube.com/user/codonauta

Academy and Chorus of St Martin in the Fields
Chorus master: Laszlo Heltay - Sir Neville Marriner ( conductor )
Point Theatre Dublin 1992

Handel, George Frideric (1685-1759)

George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, and concertos. Handel was born in Germany in the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti. He received critical musical training in Italy before settling in London and becoming a naturalized British subject. His works include Messiah, Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks. He was strongly influenced by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.

Messiah

Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed by George Frederic Handel, and is one of the most popular works in the Western choral literature. The libretto by Charles Jennens is drawn entirely from the King James and Great Bibles, and interprets the Christian doctrine of the Messiah. Messiah (often but incorrectly called The Messiah) is one of Handel's most famous works. The Messiah sing-alongs now common at the Christmas season usually consist of only the first of the oratorio's three parts, with "Hallelujah" (originally concluding the second part) replacing His Yoke is Easy in the first part.[original research?]

Composed in London during the summer of 1741 and premiered in Dublin, Ireland on 13 April 1742, it was repeatedly revised by Handel, reaching its most familiar version in the performance to benefit the Foundling Hospital in 1754. In 1789 Mozart orchestrated a German version of the work; his added woodwind parts, and the edition by Ebenezer Prout, were commonly heard until the mid-20th century and the rise of historically informed performance.