Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Handel, Music for the Royals
Usher Hall - 23/03/23
Bernard Labadie, conductor | Louise Alder, soprano | Iestyn Davies, countertenor | Neal Davies, bass baritone | Peter Franks, trumpet | SCO Chorus - Gregory Batsleer, chorus director
Bernard Labadie, tonight’s Canadian conductor, jokes that the audience might feel jaundiced by another reminder that a coronation is imminent. In fact the timing of the concert is serendipitous, as it’s been in the planning since lockdown. Handel, German by birth, moved to London in 1712, enjoyed the life and the musical opportunities and was fortunate that his German connections included the Elector of Hanover who became George I in 1715. Most of the music tonight was written by Handel for public royal events, for George I and his son George II who succeeded him in 1726. We’re to hear two of the four Coronation Anthems for George II’s coronation, and two pieces of celebratory music written for royal outdoor festivities, the ‘Water Music’ of 1715 and the ‘Music for Royal Fireworks’ from 1749. The concert also includes the ‘Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne’, a work intended for a smaller court occasion.
‘Zadok the Priest’, sung at every coronation since 1727, includes, as Labadie says in his introduction, “one of the most exciting moments in English music”, the choral entry after the long orchestral introduction. The SCO chorus rises to the occasion splendidly with a powerful rendition of the anthem. We’ll hear it sung loudly and often in the next few months, but rarely with as much care for the detail of the score as tonight, when Labadie lets us hear the textures of the orchestra in that long introduction and lightens the tone in the quieter choral sections. Altogether a more musical rendition than the work’s first performance when a vast orchestra drowned out the choir!
Ten years earlier, the ‘Water Music’ composed for George I’s trip in the royal barge on 17 July 1717 was a resounding success, both for the king and his courtiers, and for the many Londoners who watched and listened from boats and the river-side. The musical novelty, Labadie tells us, were the horns, the first time they’d been heard in England, and ideally suited to an outdoor setting. Harry Johnson and Jeroen Billiet (on modern instruments) provide that thrilling carrying sound from their first entry in the third movement. Their virtuosity continues in the fifth movement with some lovely trills. Both of these movements remain among the most popular of Handel’s works. In the quieter sections, there’s a lovely period feel to the music with the harpsichord, chamber organ and theorbo underpinning the strings, oboes and bassoons. The quiet conclusion to the work features a fine solo flourish from tonight’s leader, Michael Gurevich.
After the interval there’s even more flamboyant outdoor sounds, with three horns, four trumpets, a contrabassoon and timpani on stage for the last composed work on the programme, the ‘Music for Royal Fireworks’ written for George II in 1749. On its first performance, everything that could go wrong, went wrong – it rained, fireworks failed to ignite, the chief pyrotechnician pulled a sword on one of the king’s courtiers, there was a riot… But the six movement work survived to lift up the spirits whether heard outdoors, in the concert hall, or on the radio. The SCO’s own performances of it in the earliest Festival Fireworks Concerts in the 1980s remain memorable.
Tonight Louise Lewis Goodwin strikes a rollicking drumroll on the timpani and the overture begins. It’s the longest movement of the six and sets out the exuberant nature of the work. The trumpets and horns alternate in the main theme, seeming to vie for attention. Labadie’s decision to use modern rather than period instruments works well here in the large concert hall. (I notice that an online Proms period performance needed at least double the number of original instruments and still lacked the oomph the SCO achieves). There are quieter movements where the strings, woodwinds and period keyboards provide a subtler contrast. But the brilliance of brass and drums are what makes this work gleam, providing some of Handel’s best ever music.
The ’Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne’ is a very different work. It was written in 1713 not long after Handel’s arrival in England and celebrates not only the Queen’s birthday but her role as a peacemaker in the Treaty of Utrecht. Unfortunately, Anne, unlike her two successors on the throne, was no great lover of music, and it’s possible she never chose to hear it. It’s in nine short movements, and scored for a smaller orchestra, with chorus and soloists, all of which suggests a performance in an indoor court setting. Tonight we have three top-class soloists, Iestyn Davis, countertenor, Louise Alder, soprano, and Neal Davies, bass baritone, while Peter Franks, the SCO’s principal trumpet plays in the first two movements.
Iestyn Davies begins with the ethereal ‘Eternal Source of Light Divine’. The best known aria in the work, it features echoing and increasingly complex interplay between the singer and trumpet. It’s a perfect three minute miniature, but over almost before our ears have adjusted to the different acoustic of the ‘indoor’ work. This is the frustrating nature of the Ode, certainly for those who’ve come to hear these three singers. There are lovely sections throughout but we have to accept that nearly all of them are fleeting – Louise Alder’s first aria, for example is over in less than a minute. The Ode is a nicely structured work, and the chorus ends movements with a repeated refrain “The day that gave great Anna birth/who fix’ d a lasting peace on earth”. The orchestra and the SCO chorus provide impeccable performances, providing the contrasts between the jollier and the more solemn sections. The duets between Louise Alder and Iestyn Davies demonstrate their lovely blended voices, and the fine bass baritone Neal Davies (back in Edinburgh soon for the Dunedin Consort’s Matthew Passion) exhibits typical bass bombast in his stirring solo, ‘Let Envy then’ with its sinister imagery of Envy’s ‘hissing tongues.’ The robust final aria for counter tenor and Chorus, ‘United nations shall combine’ features two trumpets in the orchestration and eight members of the chorus singing from aloft at the side of the Circle.
The Ode is a perfectly chosen addition to this Handel programme, but leaves me wishing that we’d been able to hear more of the singers! I feel there’s a dilemma for the SCO administration when some of the solo parts are small, which I also encountered in their recent performance of Handel’s ‘Israel in Egypt.’ Should they choose a starry cast of singers, even when they all have to travel a distance, or might the smaller roles be filled by emerging Scottish artists? That said, the audience response both in its applause, and after the concert suggests that they’ve thoroughly enjoyed what they’ve heard.
Finally we’re back in the public arena for the Coronation Anthem no 3 ‘The King shall rejoice’. Though lacking the impact of ‘Zadok the Priest,’ it’s an excellent showpiece for this choir, especially in its final Alleluia section. Gregory Batsleer’ s preparation of the SCO Chorus has again produced great results. “It’s great music to sing”, a choir member says at the bus-stop. All of us in the Usher Hall tonight would certainly agree.
In Radio 3’s ‘Building a library’ this week, Hannah French chooses her preferred version of Handel’s ‘Water Music’. For more on the debate about period versus modern instruments, listen to it on BBC Sounds.
