Edinburgh Royal Choral Union: Handel’s Messiah
Usher Hall - 03/04/22
I wrote an article about Handel’s ‘Messiah’ for the EMR back in November 2021, and this concert, postponed from 3rd January for Covid reasons, was my first opportunity since then to listen to this masterpiece. The Edinburgh Royal Choral Union (ERCU) has been performing a New Year ‘Messiah’ for 134 years, and this tradition was upheld last night, albeit a little later in the year. I sang it with them while still at school in 1973, and then sang as bass soloist in 1984, conducted by Philip Ledger.
Let me say, categorically, that this was one of the best ‘Messiah’ performances I have ever heard, and huge congratulations must go to all those involved. I have to declare an interest here, as my article for the EMR was printed in the programme, but that was my only connection with the event.
Conducted with flair and elan by Michael Bawtree, and with four exceptional young Scottish or Scottish-based soloists, this was a performance to savour, and it was greeted at the end by huge cheers and bravos. It was rather interesting to hear the work at Easter time, because, of course, the second and third parts describe the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. The first part is about the Nativity, and this is why it is more often performed at Christmas, but the Easter context was revealing, and poignant. You can read about the genesis of the work, and its fascinating first performance in Dublin on 13th April 1742 on the EMR blog.
The concert started with a moving rendition of a Prayer for Ukraine. It is wonderful how the British public has taken the crisis in Ukraine to its heart, and there was a retiring collection for a relevant charity at the end.
The Edinburgh Royal Choral Union was arrayed in the choir gallery in nicely spaced order, above a small but hand- picked chamber orchestra, the Edinburgh Pro Musica Orchestra, who played throughout with great clarity. With John Kitchen at the harpsichord and Morley Whitehead at the organ, we had two of Edinburgh’s finest musicians in place, and Michael Bawtree, as conductor, controlled the performance from the podium. Mr Bawtree is a wonderfully flexible and lively figure, almost dancing before the performers, and as soon as he launched into the Sinfonia at the beginning, we knew we were in for a thrilling concert. Preferring brisk tempi, but never too fast, the work sped along at Mr Bawtree’s urging, and there were none of the longueurs which can slow ‘Messiah’ down. Judicious cuts took us through the whole piece in two and a half hours, with a twenty minute interval, and the time flew by. The chorus stands and sits were perfectly executed, the soloists, who sat at the sides, moved beautifully into position for their arias, and the whole piece flowed from beginning to end with a perfect inevitability.
First up was the tenor, Glen Cunningham, who gave a stylish rendition of the recitative “Comfort Ye” and the aria “Ev’ry Valley”. Nurtured in the Highlands of Scotland, Glen has recently graduated from the Opera School at the Royal College of Music in London, after earlier studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. I noticed that he has been studying with the distinguished Scottish baritone, Russell Smythe, and I was reminded that Russell and I had appeared many years ago on the Deutsche Grammophon recording of ‘Messiah’, conducted by Marc Minkowski. A nice coincidence!
Glen has appeared onstage in Edinburgh recently, as Flute in Britten’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ with Scottish Opera, as an emerging artist, and I found his performance in that role outstanding. I have appeared in many productions of ‘Dream’ over the years, with some truly fine artists, and I felt that his Flute was up there with the best. Watch out for this young singer! Later on, he nailed the difficult aria “Thou shalt break them”, with its high A. Bravo!
The next soloist we heard was Arthur Bruce, a native of Leith, a young baritone of great promise, who also appeared recently in ‘Dream’ with Scottish Opera as Starveling, telling us about his lanthorn representing the Moon. The first solo for the bass/baritone in ‘Messiah’ is the dramatic “Thus saith the Lord”, with its declamations and rapid coloratura. Arthur was well up to this task, and he grabbed our attention straight away, with his strong voice. A former emerging artist with Scottish Opera, he has sung quite often with our national company, and I look forward to following his future career with interest. Later on, he sang a stirring “Why do the nations?” at a brisk pace, but not as fast as my crazy rendition for Minkowski, on DG, thank goodness. I was particularly impressed by his aria, “The Trumpet shall sound” (with excellent solo trumpet from Brian McGinley), a great showstopper, but also quite formidable coming near to the end of the work. His lovely singing of the short recitative before the aria “Behold, I tell you a Mystery” gave notice of a thinking singer, not a blusterer.
The American mezzo, Lea Shaw, now resident in Scotland, was something of a revelation. Also a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist, Lea was seen as Hermia in ‘Dream’ recently, and I had been most impressed. She is perfect for the ‘Messiah’, as it requires a contralto voice, rather than a conventional mezzo-soprano, and Ms Shaw has all the low notes needed to sing the wonderful music Handel wrote for his actress/singer Mrs Cibber in 1842. I have rarely heard the solo alto arias sung so well, and I was almost sorry that Michael Bawtree had cut the second A section of “He was despised!” Almost, because, fine though it is as an aria, it can go on seemingly for hours! This was a splendid debut with ERCU, and I hope we can hear more from Ms Shaw soon.
In matching green, the solo soprano was sung by Emma Morwood, born in Belfast, but a graduate of Edinburgh University, now resident here. I had never heard Emma before, but I was mightily impressed by her singing. The soprano has to wait a long time to sing in ‘Messiah’, but her news of the “shepherds abiding in their fields” and the sudden appearance of a multitude of Angels (quite the surprise!) was well worth waiting for. She is not by any means a conventional Handel soprano in the Nancy Argenta / Lynne Dawson mould, but she was able to adapt her rather larger voice to the constraints of Baroque practice, and in some ways, it was refreshing to hear a fuller voice in this repertoire than we are accustomed to hear these days. Her “I know that my Redeemer liveth” in Part 3 was particularly exquisite.
It was a special pleasure for me to hear four soloists who are Scottish or live in Scotland, and this should be a lesson for all the other Scottish companies whose first move often seems to be to phone up a London agent to find soloists there, but who should actually look around our country to use local singers. I am sure the great cheers for these young soloists at the end was also an acknowledgement that they are ‘oor ain folk’ and are just as good if not better than people from outside. This is not a plea for parochialism, but rather an affirmation of what we have here in Scotland, of which we should be proud!
All in all, this was a marvellous account of ‘Messiah’, which will live long in my memory.
