Ormandy's Messiah was my first recording of the piece. I liked it at the time until I discovered it was not complete. In 1964, I sang in the chorus of a complete Messiah with the Cincinnati Symphony conducted by Max Rudolf, like Ormandy a great conductor of early 20th century training. I think Ormandy's approach is still ion the Victorian world of big choruses, big orchestras, big voices from the soloists, and slow tempo. In 1965, Sir Colin Davis with Phillips Records and Charles Mackerras with EMI/Angel released the first attempts to return Händel's great work to its baroque roots. Since then, Messiah's tempi have got more brisk, soloists ornament their vocal lines more, and orchestras ands choruses get smaller.
I like a few of the later recordings, particularly John Butt's, but my heart belongs to the Davis and Mackerras recordings. As the Baby Bear said, it's just right.
