After yesterday's preview of the endless list of holiday concerts in the area in December, it is time to discuss the piece that must not be named, Georg Friedrich Händel's Messiah (1742). Yes, it is a masterpiece of music history, but the lamentable annual round of weary performances at Christmas time (in spite of the fact that Messiah is an Easter work), makes me want to run screaming for anything else this time of......

Georg Friedrich Händel's Messiah (1742) is, I have to keep reminding myself, a masterpiece of music history. It is not that I hate the production, but its overexposure, due to the lamentable annual round of weary performances in December, has mostly deadened my ear to its pleasures. Later this week, we will have a run-down of other Holiday Concert possibilities, but for some people, it is just not the Holiday Season without attending a performance......