Eric Kisch wrote:

>And for the record, Sir Charles made very fine recordings of Messiah
>and Israel in Egypt.  Not original instruments but HIP enough for light
>textures and plenty of bounce - - as well as the necessary Handelian
>grandeur.

There might be light textures and plenty of bounce, but those modern
strings ruin it for me.

I think highly of Mackerras in most of the repertoire he has recorded, but
his Handel I can not appreciate.  In the Terfel Handel aria disc, Mackerras
was the conductor, and he did a very poor job.  He managed to make Handel
sound ordinary to me, and that's not easy to do.  He took the life out of
Handel's music.

Don