Dunedin Consort: ‘Messiah’
The Queen’s Hall - 17/12/21
Last concert before lockdown?
It’s Christmas so it’s time for the ‘Messiah’ from the Dunedin at the Queens Hall. Indeed Jo Buckley the Dunedin’s CEO who introduced the concert, said it was two years ago that the Dunedin last performed a live concert at the Queens Hall. More worryingly she said, “enjoy the concert, with the way Covid is going this might be the last concert for some time”! Well the good news is we did enjoy it, and the Dunedin got a standing ovation at the end of the concert. This is not surprising as the Dunedin and John Butt their director are ‘Messiah’ specialists. Indeed their recording of the ‘Messiah’ won the ‘Gramaphone’ magazine’s ‘record of the year’ some years ago. Actually I’m listening to it whilst writing this review, and it’s an interesting comparison. One of the major differences is that in the 2006 CD the Dunedin used two contraltos, whereas tonight we had a countertenor Owen Willetts. Now Handel did write it for a contralto and I think it sounds better with a contralto, also Owen Willetts seemed to be concentrating on his melody rather than his diction and although we all know the words of the ‘Messiah’, I think it’s important to hear them, something the other singers achieved.
The Queen’s Hall was around half full, which on a socially distanced basis is probably around its maximum. There were some worries about the concert going ahead given the rising numbers of Covid infections. The RSNO has just cancelled its Christmas ‘Snowman’ concerts and other concerts are being cancelled all over the country. However the 14 musicians and the 12 members of the chorus, including the soloists, took their place on the stage, led by John Butt on his harpsichord (which he occasionally played!) I have tickets for the Edinburgh Choral Union on January 3rd for their ‘Messiah’ with a 100 plus chorus (if it goes ahead).That will be a very different ‘Messiah’, one full of powerful choruses in the much bigger Usher Hall, but the beauty of the Dunedin ‘Messiah’, with a chorus of 12, including the soloists, and a small orchestra in a small hall, is that you can hear the elaborate four-part harmonies of the choir and the individual contributions of the musicians and see the spirited interventions of their conductor John Butt. It’s a different ‘Messiah’ experience and both are valid. Interestingly tonight few people stood up for the Hallelujah chorus, and they did it no doubt because of tradition, but I’m sure the whole audience will stand up at the Usher Hall not least because of the power of the big chorus.
The small hall and orchestra also allows the soloists to be clearly heard and they came forward to the front of the stage to sing their solos before going back to join with the chorus. Nicholas Mulroy the tenor is a regular performer with the Dunedin. Indeed he is a member of the prizewinning Gramaphone disc of 2006, he was still in good voice tonight. Mhairi Lawson is another long-time Dunedin soloist, and was in good reliable voice tonight with perfect diction. As I indicated earlier, I had reservations about the countertenor Owen Willetts, particularly about his diction, although I suspect it’s more difficult for a countertenor to sing. The vocal star for me tonight was the bass Robert Davies who at 6ft 6in towered over everyone, and whose wonderful bass voice dominated the Queens Hall. As our bass reviewer Brian Bannatyne-Scott says, “the ‘Messiah’ is one of the few works where the bass gets the best tunes!” The orchestra were also excellent, the added brass and the drums in Parts 2 and 3 giving the strings a bigger backing.
Overall it was a very good concert, but I thought (irreverently, as I often do), shouldn’t it finish with the Hallelujah chorus? And isn’t part 3 unnecessary and not as good? Sacrilege I know, almost as bad as suggesting that Wagner could have cut a couple of hours off the Ring! Three hours is a long time to sit in a concert with a mask on; we did get an interval where the new open spaces of the Queens Hall allow noisy conversation and slow bar queues, and a visit to very good gender neutral loos! So we’ve had the Dunedin ‘Messiah’ and now we can have Christmas and let’s hope we can have more live music of this quality in the New Year. Incidentally, the Dunedin are doing the Messiah on Saturday night at the Wigmore Hall and it will be available to be streamed so you can see it all for yourself. Try it, it’s very good.
