Graham Abbott Conducts Handel’s MESSIAH at the Sydney Opera House

For over a century, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ Messiah concerts have been a much-loved Sydney Christmas tradition, returning this December for a landmark concert experience with guest conductor, internationally acclaimed Handel specialist, Graham Abbott, bringing his unique insights and deep love for the composer’s dramatic works to the podium, for a rapturous climactic final series of performances.

Familiar to many as the host of ABC Classics’ Keys to Music, Sydney-born Abbott has dedicated much of his conducting career to the music of George Frideric Handel, confessing to a “near-lifelong obsession” with both the music and the person of the Baroque composer, beginning when he was around eight years old.

He has overseen the first Australian performances of many of Handel’s major works – such as Athalia, Ariodante, Agrippina and La resurrezione, and in 2016 led hundreds of singers taking part in Sydney Philharmonia Choirs ChorusOz weekend, performing Israel in Egypt, in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

However, it’s for his numerous brilliant presentations of Handel’s Messiah that Abbott is best known; his upcoming performances for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, boosting his Messiah conducting career total to an incredible eighty-one performances over five decades.

“Messiah has been a constant thread running through my entire conducting career, from my first Messiah with piano accompaniment in a high school hall in Emu Plains in 1978, to my professional orchestral debut with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 1987, my first appearances with the Sydney, Tasmanian, and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, and my UK debut in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall in 1997,” Abbott confirms.

“The drawcard for me is the effect the work has on the audience. Whether people know it intimately or are hearing it for the first time, Messiah packs a punch. Handel's oratorios are not church music, they're theatre music, born of decades of experience as an opera composer. In addition, I try to make the work fresh for each and every chorister”.

In an announcement this morning, Abbott informed that from December he will be hanging up his baton, to concentrate on his diverse speaking and teaching work; concluding that, “The three Messiah performances I’m conducting for the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs this Christmas will be a lovely way to draw a line under this part of my professional life after some fifty years of waving my arms about, forty of those professionally”.

So, what can the audience expect for his finale Messiah concerts?

“In the 70s and 80s we went nuts with adding ornamentation, over dotting rhythms, and racing a breakneck speed without due reference to the "affect" of the text or the overall shape of the piece. These days I change very little and prefer to let the man speak for himself. I own a facsimile of Handel's 1741 manuscript, which tells us things that no printed edition does. I refer to it often and it keeps me grounded,” Abbott comments.

“Sydney Philharmonia Choirs has confirmed a wonderful line-up of soloists, who will assist me in adding to the power and drama of the piece. The sheer force of 600+ choristers will of course be very special, and I hope my own dramatic view of the piece communicates something of the wonder of Handel's skill as a dramatic composer”, he adds.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Artistic and Music Director, Brett Weymark OAM, adds, “I have worked with Graham from my early days as a singer and he has always left a huge impression on me with his passion, knowledge and ability to conduct in such a way that it brings out the very best in everyone. It’s an honour to have him back with us in 2024, and to mark his final performances of Handel’s iconic masterpiece, in an equally iconic venue, with – I believe – one of largest Messiah choral forces that he has ever worked with.”

Graham Abbott conducts 600 singers from Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ acclaimed Symphony Chorus, Chamber Singers, VOX and community Christmas Choir, a stellar cast of soloists comprising Penelope Mills, Margaret Plummer, Louis Hurley and Christopher Richardson and the Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, in three, conducting career-finale performances of one of the world’s most-daring and beloved Baroque classics.

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