United Kingdom Handel (arr, Mozart & Jonathan Manners), Messiah, HWV 56 / Ok 572 (sung in English): Hilary Cronin (soprano), Helen Charlston (alto), Laurence Kilsby (tenor), Morgan Pearse (bass), BBC Singers, Britten Sinfonia / Sofi Jeannin (conductor). Barbican Corridor, 12.12.2023. (CC)
Two Messiahs this 12 months for me, neither ‘pure’. The primary was accentus and Insula’s spectacular however abridged efficiency at La Seine Musicale (evaluate right here), a night I shall not neglect in a rush; now, Mozart’s version, however carried out in English, not German, and with tweaks (‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’ is shared between trumpet and horn in Mozart’s take, but was restored to trumpet – right here, the superb Imogen Whitehead).
It’s all Baron Gottfried van Swieten’s fault: he introduced the Viennese premiere of Messiah and commissioned Mozart to do the honours. Or, alternatively, now we have van Swieten to thank for Mozart’s various, relying on one’s viewpoint. What was given within the Barbican Corridor was a step additional than Mozart – ‘an version ought to exist which works along side probably the most generally used vocal scores of the Handel version’. Jonathan Masters due to this fact distributed with Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Christoph Daniel Ebeling’s German translation. Allocations of solos adopted ‘probably the most commonplace in trendy efficiency’.
There was a lot to carry one out on a cold December night. Each the BBC Singers and the Britten Sinfonia have had fairly the 12 months: the political local weather is not any extra clement than the prevailing chilly exterior the Barbican Centre. And certainly, each teams had been very advantageous, with the tenors of the BBC Singers specifically masking themselves in glory. Handel’s love for semiquavers at pace posed few issues for the choir beneath their present Chief Conductor, Swedish-born Sofi Jeannin (who can also be Music Director of the Maîtrise de Radio France; she was beforehand Music Director of Choeur de Radio France, 2015-18). Jeannin is aware of what she desires, and the BBC Singers responded in variety. Synchronisation between choir and orchestra was typically good (sadly the foremost offender right here was the very last refrain, ‘Worthy is the Lamb’).
It was Mozart’s version that was the draw for this listener. The sound of the Overture was decidedly heat, timbrally talking, as one may anticipate; however acting on trendy devices provides one other layer of distance, one other cranking up of the heat to extra of a cushioning of Handel’s authentic. It remained fascinating, nonetheless, not least in using trombones, which introduced in ideas of Die Zauberflöte – a lot in order that when the allegro of the Overture bought going one virtually anticipated a cantus firmus chopping by the exercise sung by two Armed Males ….
Mozart’s tinkerings provide a lot of curiosity, for certain. The woodwind trills within the alto air, ‘However who might abide’ is one, whereas the brass additions to ‘For unto us a toddler is born’ (significantly trumpet and drums at ‘Fantastic’) are fascinating and efficient, and there’s a pleasant bassoon obbligato within the tenor’s ‘However thou didst not depart’ within the second half (beautifully delivered by Sarah Burnett, garnished by the flute of Emer McDonough). However whether or not the chugging woodwind in ‘All we like sheep’ passes muster after the preliminary eyebrow-raise is one other factor …
What was actually lacking was the differentiation of color, on both native or world ranges. There was gentle, although, from many of the soloists. Helen Charlston is the identified amount right here, and he or she excelled, superb in ’O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion’’. Her voice complemented the gleamingly pure soprano of Hilary Cronin, one thing that turned crystal clear on the finish of the primary a part of the oratorio.
Cronin is one to observe: her ‘Rejoice enormously’ was open-voiced, agile and really, very correct. She received each First Prize and Viewers Prize on the 2021 London Handel Worldwide Singing Competitors and it’s no shock that she’s going to sing a significant (and interesting) Handel position within the 2024 London Handel Competition: the title position within the rarely-heard Adrianna in Creta, HWV 32 (St George’s, Hanover Sq., albeit in live performance efficiency: April 20, 2024). On the proof of this Messiah, it must be effectively price catching (Cronin has already recorded the small position of Second Woman in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas on Pentatone, with La Nuova Musica and David Bates).
Usually, one needs the soprano had extra airs in Messiah; this time, one needed to listen to extra of the tenor, Laurence Kilsby, to whom it fell to kick the entire thing off, post-Overture, with ‘Consolation ye’ and ‘Ev’ry Valley’. Kilsby, an alumnus of the Royal Faculty of Music in London and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, is one other younger singer with a advantageous future forward. Whereas I might need been underwhelmed by his contribution to the Pygmalion Mozart Requiem on the BBC Proms this 12 months, this appeared to be the polar reverse. He’s a delicate singer with a merely pretty tone.
Morgan Pearse was listed as each bass and baritone (he’s listed within the programme as a bass in large letters then immediately beneath as a baritone – he’s a baritone). Maybe it was a clue that his voice won’t have been at its most snug right here. I very a lot loved Pearse’s Figaro in Barber of Seville on the English Nationwide Opera in 2017. Frankly right here, although, his contribution to ‘The trumpet shall sound’ was means too good for Judgement Day, whereas the instantly previous ‘Behold, I inform you a thriller’ was missing in simply that thriller. One other ‘behold’ in ‘For behold, darkness shall cowl the earth’ was fairly superficial at one of many work’s most important moments; to stability it out, Pearse’s instantly following ‘The those that walked in darkness’ was his best second, properly centered.
Total, the elements didn’t add as much as a higher entire, although, that was the difficulty. Messiah is lengthy however shouldn’t really feel so. There appeared pronounced restlessness within the viewers: cellphone alarms repeatedly going off, grocery store luggage all a-rustle, and stereophonic bronchials. It’s the season for the final, after all, however a part of me puzzled if the prevailing unrest was a results of the efficiency not fairly settling. The outdated customized of standing for the ‘Hallelujah’ refrain hardly helps (King George II stood up on the 1743 premiere: was he moved or was it gout or pins and needles?).
It’s true there are different variations of Messiah, too: Marin Alsop’s Gospel Messiah (organized Bob Christianson and Gary Anderson) or Sir Andrew Davis’s full symphony orchestra model. However Mozart being Mozart, this had its personal enchantment, and I’m glad I heard it, regardless of a lingering feeling of some dissatisfaction.
Colin Clarke
