United Kingdom Handel, Messiah: Amanda Forsythe (soprano), Jess Dandy (contralto), Thomas Walker (tenor), Ashley Riches (bass), Academy of Ancient Music / Laurence Cummings (director/harpsichord). Barbican Hall, London, 16.12.2022. (CC)
There was no programme insert to arrange us for the substitution of tenor Thomas Walker and bass Ashley Riches for Stuart Jackson and William Thomas respectively, nor any announcement from the stage, so the line-up strolling on stage got here as a little bit of a shock for what was to be an enchanting Messiah. Laurence Cummings, directing (standing) from the harpsichord, supplied what would possibly fairly be referred to as the diametric reverse of the Raymond Gubbay Festival Hall extravaganza I noticed and heard just lately. Where on the Royal Festival Hall, massed soloists reminded us of days of yore, right here the excellent (and small) refrain of the Academy of Ancient Music supplied the final word in readability. The choir’s sopranos, particularly, delivered Handel’s difficult strains (that ever-ascending ‘King of Kings’ for instance, or ‘And He shall purify’) with ease; semiquavers all through have been of good accuracy. ‘For unto us a child is born’ was positively vibrant; the sprightly ‘Pifa’ (Pastoral Symphony) that follows the right orchestral response. Cummings’s speeds have been usually on the swift (however by no means rushed) aspect; it was extra like this Messiah was lit by a steady stream of electrical energy. His interventions labored, too: the accents on the refrain’s ‘and with His stripes’ instantly adopted by a diminuendo on ‘we are healed’ earlier than sheer vivacity in sound for ‘All we like sheep’. And Cummings’s superfast ‘He trusted in God that He would deliver him’ definitely upped the voltage.
This was a Messiah, too, that began from a spot of good tranquillity, the opening ‘Symphony’ tender, intimate, of chamber proportions. Thomas Walker’s ‘Comfort ye’ was equally scaled, giving scope for some distinction in ‘Every valley’; nevertheless it was to that sense of serenity that Cummings as soon as extra summoned, a few hours later, within the ultimate refrain of Part III.
This was, actually, a wonderful line-up of soloists. Ashley Riches is not any stranger to this piece and his authority was by no means doubtful; neither was his accuracy (his ‘shake’ within the accompagnato ‘Thus saith the Lord’ extremely clear. He revelled within the drama of ‘Why do the nations so furiously rage together’, too. The soprano, Amanda Forsythe, was radiant of voice. Only maybe Jess Dandy, whose voice verges on a contralto, was problematic, purely within the quantity of her voice – she was usually too quiet significantly within the earlier components of the work. A disgrace as her decrease register is gloriously heat. Interestingly, Walker and Dandy’s best second got here collectively within the massively affecting Part III duet ‘O death, where is thy sting?’; heat and darkly lovely it sat in distinction to Forsythe’s phenomenal ‘If God be for us’ (with some fantastic solo violin contributions from the AAM’s chief, Bojan Cičić).
The soprano is the soloist that shines final within the line-up, however that sequence of moments after the ‘Pifa’ allows us to revel within the sheer great thing about Amanda Forsythe’s voice; how her voice glowed at ‘And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude’; how humble she was within the air ‘Rejoice greatly’.
Good to see David Blackadder because the solo trumpet in ‘The trumpet shall sound’, however I’ve heard him in finer type than this, and safer. No doubting Riches’s gorgeous account of the vocal half, although.
Just briefly to return to Cummings’s strategy, which regularly left hardly any hole in any respect between actions, underlining the continuing dramatic impetus. That was till the huge inflow of individuals after ‘And he shall purify’, massively interruptive. Was this an agreed level at which latecomers who thought it began at 7.30pm may enter? It felt each single shade of mistaken right here in a efficiency that was each shade of proper! Despite the clear excellence of John Nelson’s Coventry Messiah (assessment right here), Cummings’s was simply the extra satisfying total expertise. But how fortunate we’re to have entry to such performances (and a fast reminder that Nelson’s remains to be out there to subscribers of medici.television till Christmas Eve).
Colin Clarke