The Irish Baroque Orchestra and its artistic director Peter Whelan have for the first time recorded what is probably the ensemble's most important work: Handel's Messiah, an annual highlight in the IBO's touring program. Surprisingly, this is the first recording on historical instruments by an Irish ensemble – even though the work, a classic in oratorio music, was first performed in Dublin in 1742. That year, the financially struggling Handel came to the second-largest city in the British Isles to try his luck again. After the premiere (700 people attended the piece, ladies were asked to come without crinolines, gentlemen without their swords), Handel left Dublin a much wealthier man.

The Irish Baroque Choir and a host of world-class singers (Hilary Cronin, Helen Charlston, Alexander Chance, Nathan Mercieca, Guy Cutting, Frederick Long and Edward Grint) join the IBO to try to capture something of the atmosphere of this extraordinary moment, in a recording that traces the origins of this timeless masterpiece.