A performance of Messiah in Westminster Abbey is always a special occasion thanks to the composer’s unique association with the Abbey. A London resident for over 40 years, Handel wrote some of his most celebrated music for performance here and is buried in Poets’ Corner, where he is immortalised in an imposing life-size statue by Louis-François Roubiliac. Beside the figure of the composer is a musical score showing a fragment of the Messiah aria ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’.
The Choir of Westminster Abbey is renowned worldwide as one of the finest ensembles of its type, its repertoire extending from plainsong and Renaissance polyphony to twentieth-century masterpieces and new commissions. In addition to singing the daily services, as it has done since the fourteenth century, the Choir plays a central role in the many royal and state occasions which are held in the Abbey, most recently the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and The Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
Messiah