Album honored
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
The 1959 recording of Handel's "Messiah" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Philadelphia Orchestra will be inducted into the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress.
The announcement was made April 5 in a press conference in the Whittal Pavilion of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
In 2000, Congress passed the National Recording Preservation Act "to establish the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress to maintain and preserve sound recordings and collections of sound recordings that are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and for other purposes."
"The recording of 'Messiah' by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra and Richard Condie and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir set a standard for classical music recordings that has been unparalleled," said Craig Jessop, music director of the choir. "To continue to receive this recognition nearly 50 years after its initial release is a distinct honor and recognition for two national music treasures, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We are very honored to share in this legacy, even today."
Starting in 2002, 50 recordings have been inducted each year into the registry. The choir's recording will be among the 50 inductees for 2004. (Information on the registry, the 2000 legislation that created it and other inductees can be found at www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/).
The Library of Congress invited a small number of the 50 inductees to send representatives to the press conference. Elder Ralph W. Hardy Jr., an Area Seventy of the Church who lives in the Washington, D.C. area, represented the choir at the press conference.
