By Nestor CASTIGLIONE

Performances of Handel’s “Messiah” have engraved in listeners’ minds two things: Christmas and huge masses of singers and instrumentalists.

“I want a bloody row,” roared Sir Thomas Beecham at the Philadelphia Orchestra’s management when they suggested trimming the number of musicians for a scheduled performance of Mozart symphonies in the late 1950s – words which could just as well be the motto for his subsequent RCA recording of the “Messiah,” which employs an augmented arrangement of the work that includes trombones, tuba, bass drum, cymbals and triangle. Note that none of these instruments were notated into Handel’s original score or even extant during the period of the work’s genesis.

Even now, as period performance practices have swept orchestras, big, sweaty, sing-a-longs of the “Messiah” still thrive.

The Salastina Society’s performances of the “Messiah” across several venues – including Pasadena City College and the Colburn School beginning Dec. 16 – are poised to offer audiences an alternative.

“A lot of versions that are heard of the ‘Messiah’ are the awe-inspiring spectacles,” said Salastina co-founder Maia Jasper White. “But I have a strong preference for performances not being too heavy. So this is a more intimate, human-scaled ‘Messiah.’”

In fact, the Salastina Society will be performing the work one player to a part: forces far smaller than those heard in more typical performances of Handel’s oratorio.

“It’s a challenge to sing this way but a lot of fun,” opined tenor Jon Lee Keenan, who will be part of the vocal quartet performing the work. “It makes the texts much clearer. But it also exposes your voice. You can’t hide behind a large choir. And for [the vocal quartet], we’ll be doing both the solo arias and chorus numbers. You might think the arias are tough – and they are. But I think you can argue that the choruses are even tougher, with all their melismatic lines.”

“I’m glad composers don’t really write for voice like that anymore,” he added with a laugh.

For Jasper White, the decision to perform the “Messiah” with such reduced forces originates from her wish to adhere to performance practices (the original performance of the oratoria only employed 14 musicians) and her belief in the idea that chamber music, by its nature, is a more “intimate” and “inviting” medium.

“This is such a spiritual piece of music,” she said. “The way in which [Handel] word-paints the story of Christmas and Easter – I feel that by presenting this as chamber music it’s like we’re having a conversation with the listeners.”

Unique to the Dec. 16 performance at the Westerbeck Hall at Pasadena City College will be a choreography of the work by Grete Grzywana.

“One of our board members brought her to one of our concerts,” recalled White. “We found out that her specialty was choreographing sacred music. So we thought using her talent for our ‘Messiah’ would be great.”

“I’m very curious to see her interpretation,” she continued. “So much Baroque music is rooted in dance. Dance, really, is instrumental to this music.”

The Salastina Society’s performances of Handel’s “Messiah” will take place from Dec. 16 through Dec. 18. Venues will be the Westerbeck Hall at Pasadena City College (Dec. 16), Thayer Hall at the Colburn School (Dec. 17), and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills (Dec. 18). Tickets start at $40 and can be purchased online or at the door. For more information, visit the Salastina Society’s website at www.salastina.org.

  Nestor CASTIGLIONE