By ALLAN KOZINN [NY Times, 20 December 2006]

“Messiah” performances are resounding in the city’s concert halls and churches this month, but few, if any, of the choruses singing them can match the Oratorio Society of New York for venerability. The society gave its first “Messiah” on Christmas, 1874, during its second season, and it has performed the work every year since. Given the way Baroque performance practice has changed since then, it would have been fascinating if the choir had adhered to a consistent tradition, passed along from generation to generation, so that the “Messiah” it sang at Carnegie Hall on Monday evening resembled the 1874 performance.