The Proms Choral Day ended with a timely celebration of our rich amateur choral tradition, especially when some choral institutions, including the BBC’s own BBC Singers have been fighting for their very existence. Tonight united London’s Philharmonia Chorus, with the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers from the US, LGBTQ+ choir The Fourth Choir, the London Youth Chamber Choir, Gateshead’s Voices of the River’s Edge, and non-auditioned community choir, the Bath Minerva Choir – a strong demonstration of the inclusivity and diversity of our choral scene. Tonight’s Handel’s Messiah was small by the scale of the 1857 Crystal Palace performance (2000 singers, 500 players), but with 340 or so singers, definitely large-scale enough by modern standards.
The fashion for epic Messiahs developed in late 18th-century England. Elsewhere, orchestration was the focus, and Mozart’s arrangement was for a 1789 performance at Count Esterházy’s palace with probably just twelve choristers, despite his expansion of the orchestral forces. However, in the latter part of the 20th century, performances of scale more akin to Handel’s original intentions have become the norm, so tonight’s performance was, in many ways, rather a throwback.
But was Messiah the best choice? And why Mozart’s arrangement? Mozart’s addition of flutes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trombones certainly provided greater weight to match the vocal forces. But conductor John Butt had a massive juggernaut to control and, with the best will in the world, nuance was always going to be a challenge. The Academy of St Martin in the Fields played with precision and lyricism, but in solo arias and recitatives, they were often sadly just too loud to allow room for the soloists’ subtleties of expression.
Tenor Benjamin Hulett opened with a gently sustained “Comfort Ye”, followed by a nimble “Ev’ry Valley”. But here we also got the first whiff of Mozart’s heavy woodwind cadences. Hulett faired relatively well, but mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, with beautiful tone and subtle dynamics, was not given much chance in “O thou that tellest”, Butt failing to keep the additional woodwinds at bay. However, when Mozart got out of the way and left things to strings alone for “Behold, and see”, Charlston shone.
Soprano Nardus Williams delivered pure tone in “He shall feed his flock”, again, muted strings allowing for delicate colour. “I know that my Redeemer liveth” is treated to a bassoon countermelody by Mozart, but otherwise orchestral colour is light. Yet when Williams gave us sensitive pianissimos, the orchestra sadly didn’t respond dynamically. Bass-baritone Ashley Riches’ penetrating tone cut through the textures well, and “The trumpet shall sound”, with Mozart’s bizarre switch to horn, had characterful tone.
The Philharmonia Chorus formed the semi-chorus (still 120 singers), delivering confident precision in the fiddlier choruses, such as “And he shall purify”. They had a particularly fruity alto sound, and well done to the tenors for nailing the always challenging entry to “Let us break”, and for their secure top As. The fully combined chorus produced a phenomenally powerful sound, and this was used to dramatic effect for “Wonderful Counsellor” in “For unto us a child is born”. However, the full chorus was rather like an on/off switch, with limited scope for dynamic shape. And from “Worthy is the Lamb” onwards, full throttle was engaged right to the very end. With laudable inclusive intent, there was a brief participative run through of the “Hallelujah” chorus, and the final Amens for audience members before the concert. In reality, this worked for the “Hallelujah” chorus, but for non-singing audience members, the impact of the work’s powerful conclusion was undermined.
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