Kent Sweitzer
Artistic director Trevor Stephenson plays harpsichord.
Madison Bach Musicians have rescued Handel’s Messiah from its spurious hijacking for Christmas and put it back where Handel intended it, in the Easter season.
After the April 8 opening performance at the First Congregational Church, the audience reacted with a prolonged standing ovation, rewarding the ensemble and music director Trevor Stephenson for a refreshing performance of proper Baroque character.
With only a few tiny cuts, and a single intermission splitting the second of the work’s three parts, the work is still long, but unusually rewarding. The orchestra is of period size and character (12 string players, with two oboes, bassoon, two trumpets, timpani and organ/harpsichord continuo).
Eight singers divide the solos among them, and join together as the chorus. All eight are excellent young singers who deliver their solos with wonderful precision, and with notable clarity of diction and nuance. (At times, some venture into embellishments or cadenzas, a few of which were overdone.) However, the use of a boy soprano for four short numbers in Part I is not, I fear, a good idea.
In the choral movements, the small, almost madrigal-like ensemble allows the words to be heard with clarity rarely attainable by a chorus. Nevertheless, such small forces provide insufficient contrast to the solo numbers.
Handel regularly used church choirs in his performances of the work, and the composer knew how to make a chorus sound. A vocal octet is not a chorus. (And the addition of the Madison Boychoir for the upper choral lines in the “Hallelujah!” chorus and the final “Amen” gives little practical bolstering.) The weight and power of a proper chorus is the sacrifice made in this intriguing but ultimately problematic miniaturization.
Kent Sweitzer
Certainly the orchestra carried out its work with glorious strength. Their zestful contributions helped the singers overcome their small ensemble numbers.
A particular hero is conductor Marc Vallon, who conducts with irrepressible enthusiasm, throwing his body into shaping each number with vitality and with imaginative inflections. Stephenson, as always, gives a witty and informative introductory lecture.
The upshot of all this is another landmark achievement for the Madison Bach Musicians. They regularly reward audiences with stylistic authenticity and insightful performances, allowing a totally fresh understanding of glorious Baroque literature. Few in the audiences for this Messiah, I think, will hear it the same way hereafter.
A final performance of this production is offered at First Congregational on Sunday, April 20 at 3:30 pm. (lecture at 2:45).
