For the first time in too many years to count, I sat down in Roy Thomson Hall on Saturday night to enjoy the annual Toronto Mendelssohn Choir/Toronto Symphony Orchestra performance of Handel's grand, immortal Messiah.
Two factors drew me to this concert, after missing it so many times. One was the indefinable, but still quite strong, feeling that I desperately needed to hear Messiah after the ordeal of the last two winters.
The other was the discovery that the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's Music Director, Gustavo Gimeno, was going to lead these performances himself.
This is a real rarity. No TSO Music Director since Sir Ernest Macmillan, with the periodic exception of Sir Andrew Davis, has made a habit of leading these performances. It's become traditional to rotate one of the TSO's most popular annual events among the hands of assorted guest conductors. The orchestra says this is to allow for variations of interpretation, a very valid aim. But that's just what we are going to get here.
These concerts mark Gimeno's first-ever occasion to lead live performances of Handel's eternally popular oratorio. This is actually not surprising. Messiah has a far less powerful grip on the popular imagination in continental Europe than in the English-speaking world. I was, then, even more eager to hear how this first-time interpreter would fare with a work which is far more challenging than many of us Messiah veterans like to admit, and a work which would not necessarily be a key element of the musical world in which he had grown up and studied.
Then there's the whole question of whether there would be any innovations in the sequence of numbers, the choice of numbers to be omitted, or the versions of various numbers to be performed. It's entirely possible to write a whole book about the history of Messiah, and the huge multiplicity of alternative numbers which Handel composed. Trust me, it's been done. I took my own briefer crack at "the Messiah problem" in my rare music blog, Off the Beaten Staff, five years ago. Here's a link to that post:
Enough preamble. Let's get right to the performance. As usual, these TSO performances fly somewhat in the face of the authentic performance movement by using a large choir, but keeping the orchestra down to a smaller, more Baroque-sized body. No qualms about authenticity from this listener. Handel was well-known in his day for always wanting more singers and more players than he had. More to the point, the musicians of the TSO by now have all had experience in the requirements and skills of authentic Baroque performance and demonstrate it with a will. The old days of thick, plush, Wagnerian orchestral sound in Handel are, thankfully, long gone.
Gimeno staked his turf right from the opening overture, adopting a whole sequence of what most would consider central tempi at the present day, generally free from excessive speeds or distortions of the basic pulse. What he did bring to the performance, generating added interest, was a whole range of subtle little variations in the dynamic levels, avoiding the general sameness within each number that most conductors prefer. Gimeno also stressed clear articulation of notes in some passages, while generally shunning some of the comical excesses of other interpreters.
The only arguably excessive tempo was in His yoke is easy which lost its playful character and became hectic and effortful as the choir -- in just this one place -- struggled to keep up.
As for changes in the assignment of numbers, there were few, and they were confined to the second and third parts. The middle section and da capo of He was despised and of The trumpet shall sound vanished altogether. The recitative He was cut off and the following arioso But Thou didst not leave were transferred from tenor to soprano. On the plus side, But who may abide was correctly assigned to the mezzo-soprano. Otherwise, the traditional sequence of numbers with the traditional cuts was observed.
The orchestra of mainly strings, with a few winds, plus the necessary trumpets and drums, was for the most part effective, except that the orchestral tone tended to vanish altogether in the few passages where the choir sang full out. Continuo was provided throughout by a chamber organ, with nary a harpsichord in sight. Given the scale of the performance, it was just as well that Roy Thomson Hall's big concert organ was not used.
Although all four soloists had fine qualities and fine moments, I felt that the honours of the evening among them rested with tenor Michael Colvin. His characterization and feeling for the text made the recitative Thy rebuke hath broken his heart and the succeeding arioso Behold and see if there be any sorrow into a high point of emotional intensity. He then capped his performance with another dramatically conceived and fiery interpretation in Thou shalt break them.
Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Wake-Edwards would certainly have challenged Colvin for the honours if she had been allowed to use her rich, contralto-like tone in the entirety of He was despised -- and I wish she had done so. In the first part, she brought dancing joy to O Thou that tellest and simple lyrical beauty to He shall feed his flock. The dramatic intensity of her For He is like a refiner's fire made a stunning contrast.
Soprano Lauren Fagan sang throughout with simple lyrical beauty and soaring accuracy of high notes, all with no hint of overplaying her hand. A level of emotional commitment to match Colvin's would have been welcome in He was cut off and But Thou didst not leave, as also in I know that my Redeemer liveth. Lovely as it was, this aria somewhat skated over the meaning of the words.
Baritone Elliot Madore struggled with the coloratura of Thus saith the Lord, blurring the long chains of high-speed notes. He proved in much better form as the evening went on, bringing drama and accuracy to Why do the nations and The trumpet shall sound.
The most exciting contributions of the performance came from the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. The choral parts in Messiah equal in length and intensity the work of all four soloists together, and the reduced body of 100 singers rose to the challenge admirably. Diction was variable from section to section, obviously due to the varying numbers of singers in each section who chose to wear masks.
Aside from that one issue, the choir brought pinpoint accuracy to Gimeno's requests for articulation, and responded willingly to his unconventional but intriguing dynamic requirements. Equally clear were the long coloratura lines in such choruses as And He shall purify and For unto us a child is born. At one time, you might have heard the choir making a mighty shout in all the choral movements, but throughout the evening they held back the big guns, saving their full power for the Hallelujah chorus and the concluding Worthy is the Lamb... Amen. Most impressive of all were the times when the choir responded to the call for truly quiet singing, the voices reducing to a mere murmur while the text remained clear.
All in all, an auspicious Messiah debut for Maestro Gimeno, predictably nimble and stylish playing from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, an enjoyable evening of singing from the four soloists, and a splendid performance from the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
Performances of Messiah continue for the next four nights (December 18/19/20/21) at Roy Thomson Hall. Tickets can be purchased from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's website.
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