Over at Lost Wax Method, my cousin deftly recounts a performance of Handel’s Messiah by the Marshall Field’s Choral Society which we and some others attended in the 1980s. As an eye (and ear) witness, I can vouch for his accounts and descriptions, which are compelling and accurate. He recreates the tension, disappointment and humor extruded by that impossibly early performance better than anyone else could have hoped to do.
From the morning in question I remember the darkened merchandise floors we stumbled through to enter the Walnut Room. Even with X-tended X-mas hours, Fields wouldn’t begin selling for hours. I remember the red real-cloth tablecloths and the seeming delicate finery of the coffee cups and cream servers used for the occasion.
This was years before Starbuck’s. This was when coffee was still served in frequently-refilled four ounce cups. That seems like a long time ago now. Before the internet, even.
That department store klunker was my last Messiah. I haven’t seen or heard a complete one since then. I never attended another. In the CD era, I never purchased a CD with Handel’s Messiah on it.
Lost Wax Method Advent calendar – Handel’s Messiah
Marshall Field’s Wikipedia Page
See also:
The Three Greatest Recordings of Handel’s Messiah, By Don Lundell
The 20 Greatest Christmas Albums of All Time, By Don Lundell
Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium Sung By the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers, by Peter Dysart
