If it was a choice between Handel and Bach, Handel would win with me anytime.  He can do sensuousness, which Bach does not.  But why can't I enjoy both?  I can hum Messiah on the loo and I only listen to the Christmas Oratorio at Christmas (on the respective days, more or less - bit tricky this year as there is no Sunday between 1 and 6 January.) 

The trumpet and bass aria in Bach (Grosser herr) is far more fun, sweet, exciting and serious than the crudity and pomposity of  the equivalent number in Handel "The trumpet shall sound."

Mind you, Handel had the great advantage in Messiah of not having to set the rhyming doggerel that makes up the book of his other oratorios.

Bach wrote his piece for church performance, which explains its rather innocent charm to my mind.  Messiah, to be harsh, was written as money spinner for secular performance to cash in on the public's religiosity.

Equally, why should only one performance be acceptable?  Tony states his preference for some oddball performances, not because he has read it in a review, but because they personally appeal to him.  (Which given his self proclaimed atheism, shows his integrity.)

O don't get me wrong, I am a sucker for the corniness of C18 poetic diction and it is infinitely preferable to the awful masochism of the words of many of Bach's arias.

But setting the words of the Authorised Version rather than "Awful pleasing being, say" or "Chastity thou cherub bright" may be one reason for Messiah's greater popularity.

Endless pleasure, endless love, I say.

Aha! So it's in prose, is it?

I am not knocking the works: the poetic diction is part of their charm for me.  Israel in Egypt, like Messiah, is from the Authorised Version and so in elevated prose (although I think the contralto aria "The land brought forth frogs, FROGS!!!!, even in the king's chambers" with violin solo to represent the little amphibians hopping about, is a bit of a hoot.)

And the other ones have some very respectable literary anticedents:

The libretto of Semele is by William Congreve, the most admired and sophisticated of Restoration dramatists.

Parts of Acis and Galatea are by Alexander Pope, the greatest English poet to my mind.

Samson is based on Milton (admittedly with the versification smoothed out, but I'm no lover of Milton)

I'm no great Wagner fan, but I believe his words were written in a form of the alliterative verse as used in Anglo Saxon poetry.

My CD of the Messiah is by the Sixteen with Harry Christophers and it is excellent.  I would recommend it.

I think L'Allegro is one of the all time great vocal pieces.

Yes I have heard the Christmas oratorio, by coincidence I made a few critical comments about it at my site a short while ago. The 'pretender' comment was in relation to the members apparent desire for 'Christmasy' music. I wouldn't read too much into that. Although Messiah is of course not designed as Christmas music, it has over time become associated with this time of year because of the nature of the music itself. Bach's oratorio is to a fair degree a composite of earlier material.