12 Reasons you should be listening to Handel’s Messiah

12 Reasons you should be listening to Handel’s Messiah: I was always drawn toward Handel’s Messiah, but it was the frenetic energy of the Les Musiciens du Louvre version conducted by Marc Minkowski—paired with footage of gamblers, inmates, and various social misfits in the strange but compelling 1999 documentary Messiah—that sealed the deal. In recent years, I’ve been listening to the oratorio year-round. I play it in our home, in our Honda, in my headphones—enough that it’s become a sort of running joke with my wife.