Dunedin Consort: Handel’s Messiah
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh - 16/12/22
Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall was the capacious yet intimate venue for a chamber, historically-informed performance of Handel’s oratorio Messiah on the evening of 16th December by the Dunedin Consort, directed from a standing position at a virginals-style small harpsichord by John Butt. As the Consort’s recording of the oratorio under John Butt’s direction is a Gramophone award-winner and their seasonal live performances always attract praise, my expectations were high. They were not confounded.
The visually modest forces assembled for the performance belied their powers of tone projection and expressivity. The twelve singers, three of each voice, included the four soloists. The gut-stringed instruments numbered three of each violin line, two each of violas and cellos, and a double bass. A baroque trumpet in D, timpani and a portable continuo organ completed the instrumental ensemble. The ensemble sound was potent yet limpid, though if I might be permitted a minor gripe, the timbre of the wee harpsichord was rarely discernible in the otherwise clear texture. All the big choruses were thrilling and dramatic: ‘And the Glory of the Lord’, ‘For Unto Us a Child is Born’, ‘Glory to God in the Highest’, ‘All We, Like Sheep’, ‘Lift Up Your Heads’, ‘Hallelujah!’ and finally ‘Worthy is the Lamb’. Handel brought skills honed in opera seria to the composition of ‘Messiah’ and the Dunedin Consort gave these the fullest expression and advocacy.
Handel gives the solo soprano recitatives and airs that focus on the more optimistic and wondrous aspects of the narrative, demanding sweetness of tone, accuracy and agility of ornamentation and clarity of diction, as well as an aptitude for story-telling. Rachel Redmond brought all of these blandishments and more to the sequence beginning ‘There were shepherds abiding in the fields’, ‘Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Zion’, ‘Come Unto Him, All Ye that Labour’, ‘How Beautiful Are the Feet’, ‘I Know that My Redeemer Liveth’ and ‘If God Be for Us, Who Can Be Against Us?’. Breathtakingly beautiful.
Billed as a mezzo-soprano, BBC New Generation Artist Helen Charlston sang the solo contralto line in a performance of extraordinary artistic maturity and intense expressivity, with richness of tone and dynamic range, great clarity of diction with consonants to die for, and an unforgettable commanding stage presence. I was frankly blown away and cannot wait to hear her again. From the first syllables of “But Who May Abide the Day of His Coming”, I was captivated by the drama with which she infused the familiar words, endowing them with fresh significance. Handel entrusts some of the most dramatic and revelatory text to the alto line and she repaid this trust many times over. Never have I heard so much pathos wrung from the word “rejected” in ‘He Was Despised and Rejected of Men’. Revelatory and superb.
After the stern E-minor truncated ‘overture’, ‘Sinfony’, the first voice to be heard is the tenor’s with the message of hope, ‘Comfort Ye My People’, promising not merely the presence, but also the agency, of God in the world. This task, and that of emotively presenting Handel’s concept of the religious message in the text, fell to Guy Cutting, and he discharged it with warm mellifluous tone and impressive dynamic range, through all the dramatic recitatives of the Second Part, which he delivered from within the chorus, and the glorious duet with Helen, ‘O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?’. Small wonder that he is in demand for his skills and insights in baroque performance.
As in opera seria, the darkest material in the oratorio is reserved for the bass soloist. If the alto part is dramatic, the bass solo is almost apocalyptic. I am ashamed to admit that, as far as I know, this was my first encounter with Glaswegian Michael Mofidian, a bass of extraordinary power with an impressive operatic c.v. The recitative beginning with “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts” includes a sequence “and I will shake …” and yep, the ground shook. Phenomenal. Equally apocalyptic was the air ‘Why Do the Nations So Furiously Rage Together?’. No less so was ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’. It is worthy of note that, when singing solo, he closed the score and delivered a performance that was direct and seemed personal. What a performer!
In conclusion, Dunedin’s Messiah was everything I had hoped for and more. Fabulously unforgettable.