HomeNewsHandel’s Messiah at Christmas: Ev’ry valley

Handel’s Messiah at Christmas: Ev’ry valley

December 25, 2022

This year, instead of Christmas carols, we are featuring excerpts from Part 1 of Handel’s Messiah, which is concerned with the birth of Jesus as foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament and reported in the gospels of Luke and Matthew.

Accompagnato: ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’ (Isaiah 40, vv 1–3)

Air: ‘Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry mountain and hill made low: the crooked straight and the rough places plain.’ (Isaiah 40, v 4)

This performance from 2018 in South Africa is by the Cape Town Youth Choir and Junges Vokalensemble of Hanover. The wonderful young tenor Levy Sekgapane is now a successful professional singer.

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