Edinburgh Royal Choral Union: Handel’s ‘Messiah’
Usher Hall - 02/01/24
This is the third time I have reviewed the ERCU New Year ‘Messiah’, and I have to report it is still in excellent health. The Choral Union was established in 1858, and this is the 136th New Year performance of Handel’s ‘Messiah’. As before, I have to declare a connection, since in 1973, I sang amongst the choral basses while still at school, and in 1984, I sang the Bass solos in a performance in the Usher Hall conducted by Philip Ledger, at the very beginning of my professional career.
My last two reviews have been raves, and although this performance was not quite in that league, it was a most satisfying concert, much appreciated by the large audience which had turned out on a somewhat dreich January day at 12 noon.
As usual, the ERCU, conducted by their Chorus Director, Michael Bawtree, was accompanied by the excellent Edinburgh Pro Musica Orchestra, a small but high quality professional group, well-trained in baroque style. Excellently led by Greg Lawson, who provided a magical solo violin in ‘If God be for us, who can be against us’, and with fabulous trumpet playing from Andy Connell-Smith (sensational in ‘The Trumpet shall Sound’) and Iain Archibald, this band was magnificent. With David Gerrard on harpsichord, Niamh Molloy on cello continuo, and the fabulous John Kitchen on organ, we had a triumvirate of specialists who made everything seem easy.
The chorus was in fine fettle, although this year I thought Michael Bawtree pushed his choir to the limits with his fast speeds. I have no problems with fast ‘Messiahs’, but the results that John Butt (with the Dunedin Consort) and Marc Minkowski (with Les Musiciens du Louvre, with whom I recorded ‘Messiah’ in 1996) can achieve with small professional ensembles is hard to replicate with a large amateur chorus, however good. The choral writing in ‘Messiah’ is fiendish, with lots of fast runs, and the conductor needs to find speeds that suit all techniques. Much of this ‘Messiah’ was fantastic, but occasionally, I felt Mr Bawtree got over-excited. There is no doubt whatsoever that he has coached his choir excellently, and they sing with great gusto, but also refinement!
Having praised the last two solo quartets for their excellence and their home-grown talent, I felt this group was less homogenous. I know it’s not necessary to have an all-Scottish quartet for ‘Messiah’ with ERCU, although I praised the last two for that very thing, but to engage only one singer based in Scotland and born in Belfast seems a retrograde step. Mind you, both tenor and baritone have either worked with Scottish Opera or studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and, to be clear, none of the soloists was anything other than excellent, but I did feel that two of them were slightly miscast.
The Welsh tenor, Elgan Llŷr Thomas, has a lovely voice, and has already sung quite a number of roles, but he is not really a Handel tenor, in my opinion. The voice production is too effortful, and the lightness and flexibility required for baroque singing is lacking. Similarly, the baritone, Thomas Chenhall, is clearly a singer of promise, but, for me, he needs to sort out his technique, especially in this repertoire, as he is darkening his tone unnecessarily as he goes up into head voice. Neither singer sounded comfortable singing in English, with some very weird vowel sounds coming out, and this is something worth addressing very soon. I wonder if not enough time is spent at the music colleges training young singers to sing in English? With its diphthongs and odd vowels, it is not an easy language to sing in. I was very lucky early in my career to work extensively with Mark Elder at ENO, where everything was in English, and a lot of time was spent making us sing accurately and clearly in English.
I had enjoyed the Belfast-born soprano, Emma Morwood 21 months ago in the ERCU ‘Messiah’, and she impressed once again. I said in 2022 that she is not a Handel soprano in the Nancy Argenta mould, but she sings very intelligently, and the voice is stunning. There is quite a fast vibrato, which not everyone will like, but it is very appealing to me, as, for many years, I too had a fast vibrato! It makes the voice sound a little old-fashioned, as this was a trait that was particularly popular in the middle of last century. Modern Handel singing favours a straighter sound, but I rather like the electric quality of Emma’s voice. The top is quite thrilling and creamy, and she sings with a natural ease that allows the listener to relax and luxuriate in the sound.
Finally, we come to the star of the show, the reason I can rate this ‘Messiah’ along with the last two ERCU New Year concerts as top notch. The English counter-tenor, Alexander Chance, slightly worried me as he sort of sloped on to the Usher Hall platform, so laid back that I feared he might drop off to sleep in the Overture. However, as soon as he opened his mouth to sing, pure honey poured out. His ‘But who may abide’ was stunning enough, and his ‘Behold, a Virgin shall conceive’ beautifully sung, but ‘He shall feed his flock’ was sensational, as was the notoriously difficult ‘He was despised’. Many counter-tenors find ‘Messiah’ rather low for them, but Alexander has a voice that speaks clearly and mellifluously throughout the registers and every note was poised and meaningful. Even in a big auditorium like the Usher Hall, he had no difficulty whatsoever reaching to the furthest corners. I notice from his biography that he sang early in his career with the Gesualdo Six, my current favourite vocal ensemble, who, in Guy James, have a stunning counter-tenor as their top voice. The combination of Guy and Alexander must have been worth hearing!
I wasn’t going to mention that Alexander’s father is the internationally renowned counter-tenor, Michael Chance, with whom I sang on a number of occasions, notably in the Canongate Kirk some 20 years ago in Bach’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’, as I would prefer to laud him for his own work, but it is, I think, worth drawing attention to this strange quirk of genetics that father and son are both world-class singers in the same voice type, something that is very rare indeed. I look forward to hearing more of Mr Chance junior in the future. With the sad death last year of James Bowman, we lost one of the greatest counter-tenors. Perhaps we have found a new one?
I have one small grouse about the concert. There seemed no real overview of the performers’ dress. The choir were in black, with the gentlemen in black tie and dinner jackets. The orchestra was also in black, but less formal. The soloists and conductor, however, seem to have been given little advice. Emma was in a stunning lilac/purple dress, Michael Bawtree in bright waistcoat, but the three gentlemen soloists were dressed in dark suits without ties. It did look rather as if they had overdone the Hogmanay experience in Edinburgh and had just stumbled in from Lothian Road! I am all in favour of making concert gear less stuffy and Edwardian, but it looked odd that the choir was much better dressed than the male soloists. A thought for the future?
It was good to see a nice mix of age groups in the audience for this ‘Messiah’. It’s clearly a fixture of Edinburgh cultural life, and long may it continue!
