 Handel's Messiah
 |
| Members of the Choir rehearsing in
Symphony Hall |
Expect to hear plenty of Handel's music in the coming months - the
250th anniversary of his death is next year. Here was a taste of
things to come, two concerts featuring the composer's best known
choral work.
The City of Birmingham Choir's advent performance of Messiah
has become a fixture in the city's musical life and their
collaboration with the CBSO yielded another splendid performance
of this evergreen work.
Adrian Lucas conducted a slimmed down orchestra and the smaller
body of strings meant that in The Trumpet Shall Sound the excellent
contributions by trumpet and timpani rang out unimpeded.
Rhythms were well-sprung, underpinned by harpsichord and organ,
and bounced along in All We Like Sheep, matched by the nimble
singing of the choir who were on fine form.
The familiar Hallelujah chorus can still produce a frisson
when performed as well as this.
There were outstanding contributions from the soloists.
The young tenor Allan Clayton's bright lyric voice smoothly
sustained Comfort Ye My People but had the reserves of power for
Thou Shalt Break Them.
Matthew Best's ringing bass notes and declamatory thrust
unified the sense of Why Do The Nations So Furiously Rage with
Handel's sound.
Emily Bauer-Jones's He Was Despised was emotion recollected
in tranquillity rather than searing passion but she always sang
intelligently.
Elizabeth Watts showed why she is a star in the making having
won the song prize at last year's Cardiff Singer of the World
Competition. She illuminated the recitative with a lieder singer's
attentiveness to words and an opera singer's instinct for drama
and when she sang I Know That My Redeemer Liveth I was convinced
that she did.
Norman Stinchcombe in The Birmingham Post,
Monday 8 December 2008
Previous review |
... superb clarity and wonderful dynamics.
