Don't confuse this 2007 release of selections from Handel's Messiah with either the complete 1992 recording by the
Scholars Baroque Ensemble or its 1995 highlights album: this is a different package of highlights, reissued in Naxos' Selection line with some confusing things in the table of contents and very minimal packaging. For example, "Comfort Ye, My People" is missing, so the listing for it in parentheses with the Sinfony is erroneous, and the variant duet with chorus, "How Beautiful are the Feet of Him," may puzzle some since "How Beautiful Are the Feet of Them" is usually heard as an air for solo soprano. Unfortunately, the absence of a booklet makes explication of these anomalies a bit difficult, so only listening to the CD makes everything plain. Still, these selections of famous choruses and arias are indeed taken from the
Scholars Baroque Ensemble's exceptional period performance, and as long as it's understood that this CD is a trimmed-down highlights album, shorn of many of the solo vocal numbers, then one can get past its limitations and appreciate the crisp rhythms, fleet counterpoint, clear instrumentation, and expressive dynamics of this group's authentic Baroque interpretation. One really should only sample this disc, though, and if it pleases, put the money toward buying the
Scholars' complete Messiah on two discs, which is still a bargain, even at Naxos' full price.