St. Thomas, Trinity Church, David Geffen and Carnegie Hall: The Many Ways to Handle ‘Messiah’

Throughout December, Messiah is nearly inescapable in New York City churches and concert halls. To explore some of the many options available to eager Christmas Handelians, I attended four of the city’s best-known versions and found them remarkably different yet often deeply satisfying in their individual approaches to this perennial masterpiece.

It’s perhaps surprising that Handel’s Messiah has become so closely associated with Christmas as it is most appropriately performed at Easter.