Holiday Season

The most obvious thing that characterized these performances of Messiah was that they were billed as a “candlelight Messiah”, which meant that the stage was somewhat darkened, the spots were warm orange, and there were (fake) candles all around the stage and in sconces on the walls. Inevitably some people made fun of it, but I thought that the effect was pretty good, at least somewhat bringing back the atmosphere of the original performances. People I knew in the audience thought that it was beautiful and different. As far as the performances went, I felt that they were good but not as memorable as some. But let’s go back to the beginning.

The conductor, Christopher Warren-Green made me very nervous going into the performances. He started out rehearsing most of the familiar choruses at very, very slow tempos – but at each rehearsal the tempos changed radically and unpredictably, although the trend was generally to the faster. I was really concerned that he’d hit us with some unsingable tempo in performance, but as it turned out his performance tempos were relatively stable and, for most of the choruses, slightly on the slow side of “normal” -- although "Let us break their bonds" ended up about as fast as I'd care to do it. A couple of choruses were unusually fast – notably “Surely” and “Behold the Lamb of God” – in fact I’ve never heard the latter at anywhere near that speed. Gets it over with pretty quickly. On the other hand, “He Trusted in God” was very slow and reined in, so there was none of the snarly nastiness we usually aspire to, and instead it just seemed kind of "mannered". To be honest I found that disappointing. In fact, I could barely restrain myself from going up to him and saying, “Please let us do this one for you the way we want to do it and see what you think", but I guess that's just not the kind of thing one says to a conductor. There were other aspects of his interpretations that I liked less than other conductors we have had, and in fact he was quite up front about not following “period” styles and preferring to do things his own way. Part of this was that just about anything that could possibly be detached was, indeed, detached. “And … the … glo…ry… the … glory of the lord”, “And … all … flesh … shall … see it … together”, “For … un…to … us … a child is given”, “All … we … like … sheep”, and so on. I have to say that every early music specialist I have encountered has emphasized line and natural word stresses, and I felt both that this style breaks up the lines and that nobody ever talks like that … but of course that’s just my preference. He also was very strong on decrescendoing the ends of words and phrases. Sometimes this was, in my opinion, just plain unnatural. As in, “GOOD will, … GOOD will, … good WILL towards men”, where the last accent is forced by the music. And “EV’ry VAL-ley”, which sounded very odd because the orchestra did it the other "normal" way with equal stress on the two syllables of the first word.

Oh well. As my father used to say, “De gustibus non est disputandum”. On the plus side, Warren-Green was very kind to us in terms of short rehearsals and avoiding endless repetitions of the gut-busters. The other side of that coin, however, was that he gave us much fewer markings than most conductors do. One result was that many of the contrapuntal sections were pretty much the same dynamic throughout. He did conduct some overall dynamics, particularly word phrasings, and he seemed very pleased, and even somewhat surprised, when we followed exactly what he asked for. Most of us do Messiah mostly from memory and have our eyes glued on the conductor – and I think that we tend to be a very responsive chorus anyway. At this point I have to say that from where I was standing this chorus had a pretty good sound. Well, more that pretty good – really excellent. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard us do Messiah with better sound or accuracy. And the audience really appreciated it. We got very enthusiastic ovations at every performance, and everybody I talked to from the audience said it was very good. They were pretty full houses, too. So maybe I’m quibbling about stuff that is apparent to us on stage but the actual performances went out well to the audience … and if that’s the way it is that’s fine with me. If the audience is happy I’m happy.

The soprano, Kendra Colton, has sung Messiah with us twice before, with William Lacey in 2003 and Harry Bickett in 1998, which as you will notice was quite a while ago. I actually recall her as being very good in both those performances, but I think she’s even better now. Very, very controlled and sophisticated, emaculate phrasing, lovely lines and amazingly consistent color from top to bottom of her range. It almost sounds like she isn’t singing high notes, even when she is, because they sound just like the low notes. From the back I must confess that I found her just a bit dispassionate – almost like a lesson in how to sing these arias more skillfully and perfectly than you’ve ever heard before – but several people from the audience side told me that she really sells the numbers with her facial expressions and that she was very engaged.

As perfect as Kendra Colton was, I have to admit that my favorite was the Mezzo, Charlotte Daw Paulsen. She has a very rich, lovely sound that is seamlessly consistent across her range. This is different from some of the mezzo’s I’ve heard who sound like sopranos in their upper register and seem to shift gears into a lower range that sounds a bit moose-like. Not only does Paulsen have a lovely voice and gorgeous low notes, she was also the most dramatic of these soloists, including both her vocal expression and also her use of hands and body. Some of us in the bass section decided that she is the “real deal”. Obviously Kendra Colton is on the HSO list of singers that are invited back, and I hope they add Paulsen.

The men were both, as far as I can tell, younger and less experienced than the women, and they were much less consistent. Both had their good moments, but both also had problems. The tenor was particularly interesting. I noticed that he did a number of phrases in an unusually detached manner and some of his word stresses were kind of extreme. The overall effect was hardly in the belle canto tradition – but then I realized that this was exactly the kind of thing that Warren-Green was telling us to do. Maybe I’m imagining this, but I have a picture in my mind that the tenor actually did what the conductor wanted and the other three soloists pretty much ignored him and did what they felt was the right thing for them. I note, however, that the tenor has worked for Warren-Green before, so maybe doing what the conductor wants is something that contributes to getting further engagements with him – which for a young singer might be a pretty big deal. Or maybe even an experienced, seasoned singer. I recall that there were several soloists, including the incomparable Carl Dent, that Robert Shaw brought with him to concert after concert. Maybe doing exactly what the conductor asks, no matter what it is, is not such a bad strategy for a singer.

This was the year of the "Messiah in Candlelight"... 'as it was performed in Handel's time' and I confess to thinking that it was a bit "gimmicky", even though I was curious to see how this would be set on the Jones Hall stage. After seeing what the set looked like from the audience perspective, and hearing some feedback, I must say that I think it is an interesting idea, albeit, one which needs some refinement in its application. From a singer's perspective (a front-row singer) the candles on the rail were sheer hell to deal with. They made an already tight row impossible to navigate in getting on and offstage with any grace or ease. The same can be said for sitting and standing and having to work around those candles....sheer hell....very tiring...extra tiring... as one had to always be on guard. I thought that the front row singers coped admirably, but it would be nice if a solution could be found for this in the future, if this concept is tried again. The set, (in my humble opinion...others' mileage may vary...)needed to have chandeliers hung from the flies to complete the "candlelight" look. The book lights used by the singers should be painted flat black to take away the the "Star Trek" effect and have lighting gel taped to them to neutralize the blueness of the LED lights and create a warmer more "candle-light-ish" glow.

Now that I have bashed the set, let me move on to Christopher Warren-Green,this year's conductor, whom I personally adored!! And, whom I am NOT going to bash, as I adored him!! He was wonderfully positive about the Houston Symphony Chorus and told us at every opportunity how "marvelous" we were. I was up close and personal enough in the Conductor's Piano Rehearsal to see his first reactions to the chorus and he was extremely (favorably) impressed with our ensemble. I feel that we should be justifiably proud of this as we do all work very, very hard on this piece and we deserve those accolades and more!!

I personally enjoyed him very much, as a conductor, and if there were inconsistencies in his tempos, they did not bother me in this piece, as I do it completely from memory and am able to follow him as one would follow a good dancing partner. He is the leader, after all, and we should and are, able to go where he leads.

I found his particular "take" of various interpretive elements in the work, interesting and not at all out of character with the text that we were singing. He wanted a very narrative style in our text which is completely in keeping with the style of an oratorio. Like all conductors of Messiah, he has his own particular "spin" and it is always interesting to me to see just where that will take us in any given year. "Let Us Break Their Bonds" was quite fast, but it reflected quite well the "throwing off of chains" and made the movement feel very exciting in the context of the text. I found the vast majority of his tempos quite merciful, actually.

I agree with Roger about the lightness of the vocal quality of the soloists and they did, in my humble opinion, play much better in the smaller venue of the First Methodist Church, than in Jones Hall. Roger and I differ in opinion on the vocal qualities of the Mezzo. I was turned off by what I perceived as a thick and muddy quality in the Mezzo's voice which does not appeal to me. The Tenor and the Bass-Baritone are quite young, but each has great potential and I found the young tenor particularly exciting. Kendra Colton, the Soprano, has been with us before ... and I enjoy her voice.

The performance at First Methodist Church, always my personal favorite, because I love the intimacy of the church setting for this Baroque chamber piece, was excellent, considering how very tired all of the musicians and singers are for that second leg of the "Messiah Marathon". Our audience was thrilled to have us back and they were very, very appreciative. One thing which stood out to me in every single performance were problems in the second violin section each time. Even Warren-Green cut his eyes over a time or two as if to say "what's up with that?". Otherwise, I felt that the entire ensemble did a wonderful job.

All in all, it is my personal feeling that we had a very good "Messiah year" and that we grew a bit more as performers from this most interesting experience. I can't wait to see what next year will bring. Merry Christmas to all!!

Personally, I never get tired of performing Messiah - like an old friend I greet once a year who changes a bit each time. I think though the interpretations that are void of any emotional content completely miss the mark and leave me a bit wanting as this piece is not just a bunch of notes, rhythms, and dynamics. I did like the conductor, but he seemed a bit lackluster at times as though he was fighting a cold or something. Also, he didn't seem too interested in the whole emotional thing. Personally, I prefer the more 'operatic' contuctors who really gets into that side of it, then we are not oversinging so much because there are more nuances to it.

As far as facial expression is concerned, in the church performance I was able to see the soloists faces and indeed the soprano put all she had in there. She was flawless and elegant, as always. The alto's tone grew on me a bit as performances went on, but she had a blah expression on her face for most of it and her insistence on slowing down the tempos set by the conductor was very annoying. The tenor and bass, although fantastic voices and great potential, did not have the stage presence or depth of sound that comes with maturity. I look forward to performing with them say 5-10 years from now. Look out!

The chorus, I thought, performed beautifully. There were many first-timers and by performance time I couldn't tell the difference - very excellent. The response to the conductor's requests suprised even me as the choir performed each nuance called for no matter what. I was very proud to be a part of the choir this weekend.

Good review of Messiah. I do think that for the historical purpose that Nussman wants you really must add the names of the soloists and speak a little about the Bass seeming to be "outshined" by the Trumpet in "And We Shall Be Changed" While the trumpeter was Fabulous (with a capital F) I found myself (at all 4 performances) trying to listen to the Bass, but found my eyes and my attention drawn consistently back to the trumpeter, who although humble when speaking about his spot being only on his trumpet and fingers for the Friday performance said "well the focus should be on the trumpet; not the trumpeter, right?" still IMHO overwhelmed the Bass and all of his inexperience.

Well, the soloists' names do get into the official history, and I've been trying to make these comments more personal and less official -- but I will incorporate your comments, with which I happen to agree. (I'm happy to incorporate comments with which I don't agree, too). FWIW, I intentionally did NOT include the names of the men because my comments were essentially critical (as are yours) and I don't really want a Google search on their names to lead to these opinions. That would not, IMO, be in the Christmas spirit.

Christmas Pops

We had a lot more singing at this year's Christmas Pops than we did last year, which was enjoyable but fairly tiring, particularly with six concerts. The change in recent years, however, to scheduling the concerts on two weekends instead of a single long one is quite helpful. The a capella number was a Dave Brubeck arrangement of "We Three Kings". It was modestly difficult and had the tone-cluster chords one would expect from Brubeck. Reactions to this piece in the chorus varied, but I think most of us ended up liking it. The concert as a whole was a good show, in part because there were dancers. The Revolve Dance Company did two numbers, including a tap dance to Rudolph that brought the house down, and Dance of Asian America did an interpretation of Silent Night which included some moves that seemed to me to have a kind of odd relationship with the words, particularly "glories stream from heaven above". The main attraction of the show was William Joseph, a young pianist more or less of the American Idol type, who played his own arrangements -- two of which had parts for chorus. His take on the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria was particularly effective: the first time through was a very lovely violin/cello/piano trio and the orchestra and chorus joined for the second (wordless) verse. Jones Hall was packed to the ceiling for the four public performances, which I'm sure made the HSO some much-needed money.

Holiday Season - 2009

Handel's Messiah

Christmas Pops