"Messiah" by the Oratorio Society at Carnegie Hall The soprano Kathryn Lewek joined the Oratorio Society at Carnegie Hall on Monday evening under the direction of Kent Tritle. The Oratorio Society, under the direction of Kent Tritle, performed Handel's "Messiah" in front of a capacity crowd on Monday at Carnegie Hall. The stage was also filled to capacity. The society's choir has close to 200 singers. The alto section alone, with 59 members, is more than twice as big as, say, the entire Choir of Trinity Wall Street, whose "Messiah" I also reviewed this month. A choir that big has its drawbacks. Even in a group as skilled and disciplined as this one, individual members introduce occasional flaws in intonation. And there is breathy fuzz to the overall sound as the static noise produced by the friction of air against vocal cords is multiplied. When nearly 200 bodies sit down in unison, it sounds like a subway approaching. But be that as it may, when the entire chorus belted out the word "wonderful" in "For unto us a child is born" the effect was exactly that. So was the "hallelujah." With so many well-loved melodies, performances of "Messiah" often feel like a collection of set pieces and "greatest hits," but Mr. Tritle did a fine job of keeping the momentum going. There were passages with real dramatic flow, including the sequence of movements beginning with the tenor arioso "All they that see him laugh him to scorn," which evokes a Bach Passion. The soloist, Nicolas Phan, sang it with a firm and radiant tenor and thoughtful commitment to the text. I found his opening Arioso, "Comfort ye," somewhat mannered and precious, but I appreciated the care he evidently brought to the placement and shape of each note. I would have liked more of that in Rebecca Ringle's solos. She commands a glowing, warm mezzo, but too often, it felt as if the sound were an end in itself. Her plush voice was like a deep sofa that the words couldn't quite get up out of. Communicative verve and thrilling beauty came together in the soprano Kathryn Lewek. She began "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion" at exhilarating speed, then took her time on the words "He shall speak peace," lovingly ornamenting the cadence in a way that was both original and entirely subservient to the music. The bass-baritone Dashon Burton sang his solos with authority and charisma. He demonstrated prodigious breath control in "The trumpet shall sound," to which the trumpeter Scott McIntosh added a note of teenage exuberance bordering on excess. The Oratorio Society's orchestra might have played more attentively in some quiet passages, but brought vigor and zest to the jubilant ones.