We sang the first of our four performances of *Messiah * last Sunday afternoon. The review in this morning’s (Tuesday’s) paper was generally favourable, although it did note that we tenors were more than usually outnumbered by the other parts.
Oh, the power and the passion
Messiah by Handel
IT IS impressive indeed to hear 450 voices declaim, as one, “All we like sheep”, unanimously following conductor Richard Gill’s lead in placing sardonic emphasis on the last word. (Here I must declare an interest: one of the 450 is related to me, which may provide genetic evidence of my black-sheep status.)
As is often the case with the Sydney Massed Choir, which the Philharmonia assembles for its annual Messiah performances, there were more ewes than rams, which makes the sound rich and billowing in the top register but sometimes missing some harmonic tension in the inner parts. But that didn’t detract from its force and power.
The first notes in the chorus “And the glory of the Lord” filled the concert hall with fresh vividness, though the rich tenor part in the last line of “His Yoke is Easy” and the expressiveness of the last line of the sheep chorus (on the words “The iniquity of us all”) were somewhat overshadowed.
The one criticism I would make of this fulsome performance is that there was a tendency to break lines up and not maintain tension through to the cadence. Gill drove the flock forward with unyielding pressure, maintaining the beat rather than dwelling in expressive shadows, and gathering the lambs in his expansive arms to make the rough places plane and the plane places quick (the speeds were almost uniformly quick, which kept Victorian bluster out of the proceedings).
Tenor Jaewoo Kim comforted with a well-groomed sound, fresh and clean in delivery and uncomplicated in expression (one could tolerate a little more nuance in the accompanied recitative in Part II, “Thy rebuke hath broken His heart”), while bass Andrew Collis shook with stentorian firmness and solidity. Alto Catherine Carby was even and controlled, and soprano Celeste Lazarenko had clarity and opened out thrillingly in the top register.
For melodic fluency, the best moments came from trumpeter Paul Goodchild with Collis in the bass aria, “The trumpet shall sound”. The orchestra was mixed but with some fine solo playing from concertmaster Fiona Ziegler.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday 13 December 2005
Congratulations! Messiah sing-along on Sunday evening, and am looking forward to it.
Baker
December 12, 2005, 11:31pm
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Congratulations! I have never performed a whole Messiah, although I’ve sung an occasional chorus or two. That’s probably all for the best. I’m not the best singer, just enthusiastic.
My mother’s favorite solo is the soprano “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth”, and she wants it sung at her memorial service. I say that, instead of funeral, as she has willed her body to the University of Kansas Medical School.
Most everyone likes “The Hallelujah Chorus” but I think I like “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” even better.
I’m going to a Messiah sing-along on Sunday evening, and am looking forward to it.