Kevin Sutton writes concerning choral works of Bach/Handel:

>...I don't always consider them, or any baroque composer for that
>matter, up there as a "greatest ever" choral composer.  The reason is
>that in many cases, they treat the choir as another instrument in the
>orchestra and don't always compose to the strengths of a purely vocal
>ensemble.

And I'm very glad that they treat the choir as another instrument;
that's just how I like it.  Assuming there is an orchestral part and/or
contribution, I dislike the vocal contributions to overcome the impact
of the orchestra.  I'm looking for good proportions from all instruments.
That's a prime reason why a singer like Bryn Terfel is not up my alley.
I've never heard him sing as if he was content to be one of the
instruments.

I'm aware that many prefer vocalism that dominates the proceedings; I'm
just not one of those persons.  Concerning Bach and Handel choral works,
they tend to have fantastic instrumental contributions which I don't want
drowned out or minimized by the human voice.  I want to hear it all.
Too often in the past, the "singers" took center stage with a resulting
deficiency in what was heard from the orchestra.

Don Satz
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