Through December, choirs the breadth of the country prepare for their annual airings of Handel’s most popular oratorio — Messiah – to which audiences flock like sheep. The Hallé invested specialist conductor Stephen Layton as the musical heavenly host, bringing his choral expertise and insight to this all too familiar work.
Layton’s performance was consistent with his acclaimed recording and other performances, which seems to be his tried and tested model — with the usual cuts to Parts 2 and 3. The opening Sinfony was articulate, stressing the dotted rhythms with much light and shade, setting a high bar for the rest of the evening. His pacing was generally cautious throughout but on occasions he did not take the music as quickly as others. However he never lost sight of the metre, always faithful to it, which emphasised the rhythmic drive and highlighted the hemiolas, when they occurred. In Layton’s Pifa and the sequence which leads to the “Hallelujah” Chorus he pressed the virtual accelerator, making quite an impact.
James Gilchrist’s expressive voice projected effortlessly in Bridgewater Hall, making the most of the text in “All they that see him” and in the recitative “Thy rebuke hath broken His heart”. Hearing a true contralto voice is a relative rarity, and the voice of the evening was Jess Dandy, whose richness, colour and expressiveness were remarkable. Dandy commanded the stage as strongly as Gilchrist, but with great individuality. In her aria “He was despised”, Dandy delivered the text with meaning and in the da capo repeat, stylistically embellished the line.
Hilary Cronin has the ideal soprano voice for this work. In her arias her pure tone floated celestially in the hall, aided by pristine diction. She was at her most creditable in “How beautiful are the feet” in Part 2. Bass-baritone Matthew Brook was characterful, making the most of some Handel’s most vivid word painting, seeming to relish every opportunity as in “The people that walked in darkness” and “Why do the nations so furiously rage together”.
The strings played without vibrato throughout, with varying degrees of success. For most of the performance the upper strings had a clean but astringent sound, however through some of Part 2 their intonation wasn’t as secure as one would expect, mostly rectified by a retune. The Hallé Choir, very well drilled by Matthew Hamilton, sang commendably and enthusiastically without scores. There was a general lack of confidence in Part 1, with some entries not being completely secure. After the interval, Layton’s conducting became more animated for the choruses especially, with the choir springing to life.
The stamina of the choir was impressive, never flagging, and they were able to deliver the final “Worthy is the lamb” and Amen with conviction, although they didn’t sound fully convinced with Layton’s broader tempo for the final fugue. The large chorus had exceptional dictation and intonation, the balance was mostly good, but the comparatively smaller tenor section was sometimes easily overpowered. On some occasions the sopranos were overly enthusiastic with their entries, skewing the blend slightly. All in all this was an admirable performance, the rough corners seeming more pronounced against such high polish of all the other details.
