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Handel’s ‘Messiah’ (and Bach) from ASO
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CONCERT REVIEW
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Thursday in Symphony Hall. Program repeats Saturday at 8 p.m. 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphon.org.
Old friends G.F. Handel and J.S. Bach join the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra on stage this weekend for music of the Christmas season. Conducted by ASO chorus director Norman Mackenzie, the concert Thursday evening proved to be another sparkling facet of the orchestra’s zooming artistic progress.
For the institution, its appeal is spreading far outside Atlanta and the Deep South.
For instance: After last month’s triumphant in-concert performances of Osvaldo Golijov’s opera “Ainadamar,” the ASO and music director Robert Spano have been invited to take the show on tour to Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, in June.
Meanwhile, musicians in the mighty Chicago Symphony have added Spano to the short list of candidates for its music directorship, which comes open this summer. (Although Spano’s ASO contract runs through 2009, conductors are notorious for holding two or more posts concurrently.)
There’s more: ASO president Allison Vulgamore, credited with piloting the orchestra to financial stability and enabling its progressive artistic agenda, is the talked-about candidate to take charge of the Philadelphia Orchestra, a venerable ensemble suffering an administrative crisis.
Hire away Atlanta’s musical leaders? For the moment, it’s all speculation. What’s increasingly clear is that other cities, some mired in orchestral malaise, are starting to want what we’ve got.
Thursday from Symphony Hall what we got was the same sort of concert heard all over: bleeding chunks of Bach’s “Christmas” Oratorio and Handel’s “Messiah.” Yet under Mackenzie’s spirited baton, and with the ASO Chamber Chorus in top form, the evening held many surprises.
Designed for the Lenten season, “Messiah” has been an Advent evergreen since it arrived in Boston in 1818. Mackenzie followed the shallow tradition of performing just part one, the nativity portion of the score, tacking on “Hallelujah” and calling it a show.
But which “Messiah” to perform? A practical man of the theater, Handel in his own lifetime rearranged “Messiah” to suit the specific talents of the available singers and orchestra. The soprano can’t sing low notes? No problem, if you’re the composer: you simply rewrite her arias, tailoring them to encompass her limited range. With annual performances spread over the last few decades of the composer’s life, it’s no wonder there is no definitive edition of the score.
The ASO, following Robert Shaw’s game plan, uses as a starting point one well-documented performance from May 15, 1754. Mackenzie here wasn’t going for literal historical accuracy: that 1754 concert employed just 22 singers; the Symphony Hall stage on Thursday held more than 60 vocalists.
Still, Mackenzie urged the band to adopt a few “historically informed” performance practices. For the strings, these include techniques like spare vibrato, shorter bow strokes and more crisp phrasings. The winds are asked to blow bright, pungent tones. Harpsichordist Peter Marshall’s continuo playing was a thorough delight.
The only serious drawback — and it’s very serious — was the balance of the solo vocal quartet: soprano Leah Partridge, mezzo Nannette Soles, tenor Frank Timmerman and baritone Gerard Sundberg.
While the men delivered their parts with consistency and a bit of flair, the women stumbled. Soles, in particular, had a rough time navigating the vocally treacherous displays in “But who may abide the day of His coming,” which was designed for an operatic coloratura and features a prestissimo section that’s the fastest marking Handel ever wrote.
J.S Bach started the evening. Here the solo vocal quartet more easily matched their parts. Mackenzie shaped the music with intelligence and character, a fresh and fetching performance.
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