Nicola Lisle looks forward to an unusual version of Handel’s Messiah

Handel’s Messiah is coming to Oxford – but it will be Messiah as you’ve never heard it before.

This is the Instant Orchestra version, a re-imagining of Handel’s most famous oratorio, that is open to all, regardless of experience or musicality. There are no rehearsals, just a one-off performance that will evolve on the night, when anything could happen.

It might sound crazy, but it’s been done before and, somewhat improbably, it works.

The scratch performance is being promoted by Oxford Contemporary Music and takes place at the Bodleian’s new Weston Library, as part of Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival The man behind the enterprise is BBC Radio 3 presenter Max Reinhardt, who was inspired by The Scratch Orchestra and Portsmouth Sinfonia to create a similar project that would open up classical music to a wider audience.

“For me, it’s about empowering the musicality of people,” he says. “We live in a culture where music is something you consume rather than play. But I think everyone’s born with a certain musicality, and things both cultural and educational deprive people of that.

“Obviously we have great orchestras and great players, and great musicians and great composers in spite of all that, but I think there’s a musicality that everyone can share.

“It’s also to make people think, what is music? What is sound? What is musicality?

“You will be able to appreciate the great joy and the great edifice of the Messiah, but on the other hand you’ll also be able to think, hey, I can play, and I can play with really good musicians.”

Max is bringing key musicians to form the core of the orchestra and chorus, and hopes some of the city’s most proficient players and singers will come along too.

But he also wants people with little or no performing experience to feel they can also play a part in what should be a unique, exploratory, creative and stirring experience.

“If you look at the way folk sessions work, you get someone who can barely play at all sitting next to someone who’s really good, and that’s the way you learn. That is definitely a way of teaching and enjoying music, and empowering musicality. In a way that’s what we’re doing.”

So how far will this re-imagined version of Messiah deviate from the original? “Some of it will be quite recognisable and other parts of the libretto I’ve reinterpreted and we leave Handel behind and go for other ideas,” Max says.

“For example we’ve got a sound artist who’s making a sheep soundscape, which people can download on their mobile phones. So audience and orchestra will be able to play the sheep soundscape just by using their mobile phones.

“There’s about a dozen excursions of that variety. But the bits everyone knows like the Hallelujah chorus will be recognisable, although we’ve put a few tricks in there!”

The emphasis is on having fun and throwing yourself into the spirit of the piece. “We’d love people to rock up on the day, so do please come along!” Max says. “The more the better – we’d love lots of people to come. And if you don’t want to play, just come along and watch – that’s great, too.”

Where and when
Instant Orchestra: Handel’s Messiah
Weston Library, Oxford
Friday, November 20, 8.15pm Free admissionocmevents.org