Books
The Making of Handel’s Messiah
Andrew Gant
Bodleian Library 978-1-851-24506-2 144pp (pb) £15
Andrew Gant’s title doesn’t just embrace the hinterland to the Dublin premiere of in 1742. Skirting subsequent performing traditions during the composer’s lifetime, the Victorian swerve into gargantuanism, and 20th-century ‘decluttering’, it examines the ‘making’ of an institution: musical, national, a Christmas touchstone despite its broader remit. There’s a fine pedigree for the ‘Messianic’ monograph of course, and if Gant hasn’t much to add, lavishly★★★
