Performed June 12, 2022; James Knox Sutterfield, conductor; Paul D’Arcy, tenor.
27. Arioso for Tenor
All they that see him laugh him to scorn; they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, saying:
(Psalm 22:7)
28. Chorus
“He trusted in God that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, if he delight in him.”
(Psalm 22:8)
George Frideric Handel’s Messiah holds a singular place in the choral canon. It is a fixture of many choirs’ annual seasons–whether in full or in part–particularly in December. In New York City alone, there are often more than 20 performances of the piece in that single month. The Oratorio Society of New York has performed it annually since 1874, and the tradition of annual repetition goes all the way back to Handel himself. The 1743 premiere in Dublin was a tremendous success, and though Messiah initially met with a less enthusiastic reception in London, by 1750, Handel began leading yearly charitable performances at London’s Foundling Hospital. Reflecting on the work’s already monumental success by the end of the 18th century, music historian Charles Burney wrote that Messiah “fed the hungry, clothed the naked, fostered the orphan, and enriched the succeeding managers of Oratorios, more than any single musical production in this or any country.”