six: Lent IV, #24 and 25

Precluding an all-Handel-all-the-time Lent, two Sundays were turned over to his colleagues JS Bach and Thomas Tallis. By the Fourth Sunday of Lent, however, we return to the pilgrimage. We sang #24 "Surely He Has Borne Our Griefs" and #25 "And With His Stripes We Are Healed." I had considered holding "Stripes" until later this year, worried the choir may be overburdened. However, they pleasantly surprised me by demonstrating that this fugue is rather straightforward. Troubles were typical- a tendency to rush the tempo and also to sing every note the same. I believe "plodding" was a word used by one of the altos. However, by the time worship arrived, it had become a thing of beauty.
The final cadence of "Stripes", of course, provides a dominant to the next movement (#26 "All We Like Sheep.") The choir was in NO WAY prepared to sing "Sheep," but its absence felt conspicuous. Are there any other moments of Messiah when three choruses proceed consecutively?

five: Lent I, #22

First Sunday of Lent = first chorus of part Two. "Behold the Lamb of God" was a stirring start to the Lenten Season as well as pointing us toward the Table on this Communion Sunday. The choir sang in an appropriately dramatic fashion-really, Handel makes it impossible to do otherwise- and the pickup notes were (mostly) of the correct duration.