A rare encounter with an exquisite Handel pastoral ode at Carnegie Hall

Composed during Handel’s period of gradual transition from an Italian-style opera composer to a creator of English dramatic works, L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato was performed at Carnegie Hall this week after more than a century. Handel’s pastoral ode is perhaps better known in New York thanks to Mark Morris’s celebrated and frequently restaged choreographic interpretation, in which he ingeniously translates the music’s structure into a captivating array of highly imaginative physical tableaux.

The work is based on John Milton’s paired elegies L’Allegro (Merriment) and Il Penseroso (Melancholy), which Handel and his librettists shaped into a philosophical debate between two divergent “humours”. Given its considerable length and absence of a dramatic plot or explicit religious theme, rendering this composition can be demanding in terms of maintaining the audience's attention. However, the young and energetic Dinis Sousa, replacing the initially announced Sir John Eliot Gardiner at the helm of the combined forces of the English Baroque Soloists (EBS) and Monteverdi Choir, graciously kept the public fully engaged. 

In the absence of an overture, Sousa prefaced L’Allegro with two segments – Vivace and Largo – from Handel’s Concerto grosso, Op.3 no.2 as a means of introducing the public to the composer’s seemingly limitless inventiveness in portraying the contrast between gaiety and pensiveness. The frequent mood changes were beautifully calibrated throughout the entire performance, Sousa never overemphasising them. Vignettes describing English landscapes or scenes of urban life were painted with evocative brushstrokes by the EBS instrumentalists led by concertmaster Kati Debretzeni. From the horn and bassoon to the organ and bells, the various solo cameos had a distinct presence.

Not only were the choral and instrumental contributions outstanding, but the performance benefited as well from a mostly excellent cast of soloists, detaching themselves from the chorus ranks. Soprano Hilary Cronin’s impressive vocal range was showcased throughout the performance. She rendered her accompagnato “There held in holy passion” with a full and radiant timbre while the sostenuto line in “Hide me from day’s garish eye” was as though dipped in silver. Samantha Clarke’s refined soprano was on display from her very first intervention, “Hence, vain deluding joys.” Her light, sometimes exuberant tone matched very well Rachel Becket’s nightingale-like flute in “Sweet bird”, the most-excerpted number of this work. 

A third soprano, Alison Ponsford-Hill (in dialogue with the ringing “merry bells”) and alto Bethany Horak-Hallett (rendering a mellifluous “Hence, vain deluding joys”) completed a remarkable quartet of female voices. The male ones, with a more limited exposure, were less successful in their endeavours. Bass-baritone Alexander Ashworth was the most effective of them in “Sweet temp’rance”, a very Age of Enlightenment call for moderation as a middle path solution to Milton’s dichotomy.

The orchestra and especially the chorus undoubtedly exhibited a high level of skill and precision both on Thursday and on the night before (when they interpreted Bach’s Mass in B minor). However, in past performances under Gardiner’s baton, I often sensed a particular emotional resonance, a unique aura that transcended the music itself. This week, that aura was sadly absent.