This 1902 edition is the one I grew up on, but has subsequently been overtaken by Clifford Bartlett's Oxford University Press edition (1998) and the magnificent, undated. Barenreiter edition. I have sung all three and there is no doubt that the last is the best by far. Clearly printed and comprehensive with all the variations and additions that Handel composed. ( )

Rating "so-an-so" not the Messiah which is one of the greatest Masterpieces of all times, but this particular edition. I have sung with another one, too (Handel's "Messiah": Choral Edition by Watkins Shaw, also by Novello, but an older edition I had borrowed from a library), and I consider a mistake for a Choral singer to buy this one, with all respect. The way it is typeset, the visual choices, are in my opinion harder to read than any other score I have seen. Of course, this cannot but be very personal, another person could well say something very different. ( )