Well, I've got mixed feelings about this year's Messiah. I think that part of the reason may have something to do with competing performance traditions for Messiah that I understand go back all the way to the era of its composition: opera vs cantata. I think that the performances I have enjoyed the most have been very much in the operatic tradition (e.g. 2008 and 2010) -- a big emphasis on the words and story, high on drama and even with some acting from the soloists. I think that the interpretation this year was probably more in the cantata "concert hall" tradition in which I think that the music is intended to carry the story, and I guess I just don't find that as exciting and satisfying. But I do understand that there is a point to this approach and I think that these performances on the whole carried it through very well.
Perhaps I should back up and describe the chronology of these performances a bit, since it was somewhat disconcerting. First of all, the evolution of the tempos was kind of strange. During rehearsals Charles was using metronome markings that he said he got from the conductor that were extremely fast. Some of them were on the very edge of my personal ability to hang on, and many of us felt that at least one, "He Trusted in God", was so fast that it was not possible to put real expression into the music. When Knapp appeared, however, most of his tempos were "normal" or maybe a bit slower than normal, and in the first performance at Sugar Land Baptist some of them got even slower. I think that they speeded up a bit at Jones Hall and most of them ended up sort of "medium fast", with the exception of a couple I'll discuss shortly. This brings me to the first performance at Sugar Land Baptist. That place probably has the worst stage acoustics of any I've ever sung in. Comments from people in the audience indicate that the sound is fine out there, but on stage it's almost impossible to get any sense of ensemble, and the orchestra sounds almost like they are playing with mutes. I didn't like it when we did Beethoven's Ninth there, but in that performance we'd had quite a bit of Jones Hall rehearsal previously. In this case we'd just had one orchestra rehearsal which was "bits and pieces" without any soloists and with the orchestra still pretty rough. In other words, the church performance was our first time to put it together, and I found the environment to be extremely negative. I think that the soloists did, too, because they did some rather strange stuff that didn't happen at Jones Hall. I was frankly very discouraged by the church performance -- but things worked differently at Jones Hall and that's mostly what I'll talk about here.
Let me start with some of the things that were clearly good. Knapp asked for a lot of very musical expressions, concentrating on the whole on line. For example, the entire "For Unto Us" chorus built steadily in both volume and intensity. By the time it got to the double melisma (soprano and alto in thirds) the women were really cooking and the men were punching out the "Unto us, a child is given". I think that's the best and most exciting I've ever heard that section. Another memorable moment came near the end of "Behold the Lamb of God" when the sopranos sit on D and the rest of the chorus sings "That taketh away the sin of the world" under them. Knapp asked the sopranos to give that D some body but the rest of the chorus to be pianissimo, and the sound of the clear D rising over the hushed ensemble was truly beautiful. Again, I don't think I've ever heard that section done that well. Finally, "Since By Man" was certainly unique and very impressive, although I must admit to being a bit ambivalent about the interpretation. He dispensed with the opening organ chords in both of the Grave sections, so the a capella chorus just came out of nowhere, in both cases truly pianissimo. The first section, "Since by man came death" was hushed throughout with just a little crescendo near the end to make the line. The second section, "For as in Adam all die", however, also started pianissimo but swelled to a huge a capella forte by the end of the phrase. This was astonishingly effective -- but I also have to note that this interpretation means that the contrast with the following allegro is only rhythmic, not dynamic. I'm not sure that's entirely consistent with Handel's obvious intentions, so I don't quite know what to think about this one, but what the heck -- let's give it the benefit of the doubt. It was certainly striking. All in all, I was told by people in the audience that the contrasts in dynamics and tempo throughout the performance were extraordinarily effective.
Now let me mention a couple things I didn't like so much. As I said before, most of the tempos were fairly rapid but well within what we have become accustomed to. The only exceptions were "He Trusted in God" and "Surely", which were both very fast and in both cases probably about the same as our previous fastest performances of these choruses. Some of the tempos, however, were just plain slow. "And With His Stripes", for example, was as slow as we've ever done it or slower. "And With His Stripes" also did not have the rhythmic and dynamic contrast that most conductors ask for. Both the subject and countersubject of the fugue were very legato and about the same volume -- which started soft and built some. I felt that this resulted in a rather bland sound, although I have to admit that it was strong on line. Another chorus that was strong on line but I felt was low on drama was "He Trusted in God". He asked for a legato, connected style that made a good line but I felt detracted from the "bite" which I think, given the text, is entirely appropriate.
What about the soloists? Well, they grew on me, although they were never as dramatic as I would have preferred -- with one exception from the tenor I'll get to shortly. The two men were extremely skillful and competent. Both had a beautiful sound, wonderful evenness of tone across their entire range, which for the bass is extreme, and handled their melismas very accurately and tastefully. In particular the bass melismas in "Why Do the Nations" were extremely virtuosic. Incidentally, we've met the bass before; he was in Ryan Stickney's studio at Rice, and his career certainly seems to be progressing nicely for him to be singing with the HSO. The tenor, however, was the more impressive singer. He had a very big voice and outstanding voice quality, and he handled all his arias with tremendous skill. For me, however, the highpoint of the soloists' performances was his dashing of the potter's vessel, which was absolutely thrilling. On the other hand, I frankly did not like one of the women soloists. The alto had a somewhat uneven tone across her range, sounding like she had several "gears", although she was more controlled in Jones Hall than in the church performance. Although she had a beautiful warm sound in much of her range, there was not much expression or drama in her singing. I was particularly disappointed in the "shame and spitting", which in some past performances has literally had the people in the front rows cowering -- but in these performances was just mildly accented. Of course, this might be to some extent due to what Knapp was asking for, since all the soloists gave performances that were somewhat "contained", but in this case it was definitely bland. Now -- about the soprano -- she was a different story. She has a drop-dead beautiful voice, perhaps a bit like Kathleen Battle, across her entire range and she traversed the very rapid melismas in "Rejoice", which was very fast, with great skill. She was also the only soloist to use appreciable ornamentation, which I like, and some of her ornaments in the fast parts were so quick one almost had the impression that it barely happened -- but it did. I understand from people in the audience that she really "sold" her performance very well with her facial expressions.
Incidentally, perhaps I should discuss ornamentation a bit. All the soloists except the soprano used pretty minimal ornamentation, which appears to me to be an increasing trend in recent years from all our soloists. The tenor, in particular, had almost none. Personally I prefer to hear the soloists having fun with creative and elaborate ornamentation, as long as it fits well into the melodic and rhythmic structure of the music, and from what I know that's consistent with period practice. But since it seems to be a general trend maybe I should just hope that the pendulum swings back in a few years. The one ornamentation that was highly unusual occurred in the orchestral introduction in which the oboe solo became an extemporaneous improvisation that evolved in each performance. No one I have talked to, including the oboe player, has ever heard this done before, and it was somewhat startling. I loved it, but I know some others did not.
Now, about Christian Knapp, the first thing that occurs to me to say is that it seems to me that many of our conductors sort of simulate being nice guys -- but this one is the real McCoy. Very personable, friendly and kind. He also is an extremely skillful conductor. He didn't give us as many verbal instructions as many Messiah conductors do, but he was able to show us what he wanted very effectively, including shaping inner voices in the counterpoint, which is something not too many conductors do very effectively. And all his interpretations were certainly very musical and sophisticated.
Finally, I should record a couple audience stories. The Friday crowd was a bit small but apparently somewhat rowdy. Charles says that near where he was sitting there was a woman singing along with both the choruses and the arias, mostly an octave lower than true pitch -- and during "Rejoice" someone behind him was whistling along, complete with ornamentation! But the more touching story comes from Paulo. He was a couple seats away from Gabby Giffords, and during "Hallelujah" he heard some off-pitch singing coming from her. Her husband was holding her hand and she was obviously very involved and moved. I hope Paulo is not embarrassed by my reporting it, but he teared up when he told us about this. So did I.
Hare are some comments from other people. Phil Lewis, tenor, says,
I had the good fortune to be in the audience tonight. You did yourselves proud. Since by Man Came Death and Worthy is the Lamb were particularly effective. Everyone I talked to agreed the Tenor was outstanding. I wanted to stand up and say to my neighbors in the audience, "Hey, I sing with those guys sometimes!"
Carolee, alto on sabbatical in Nigeria, agrees:
Many thanks to all of you in the Messiah chorus tonight! I thought the concert was wonderful! The venue was nice, acoustically, I thought. I was just disappointed I couldn't hear Scott on the harpsichord from the mezzanine where I was sitting. But the chorus sounded great and the soloists were wonderful! I especially enjoyed the soprano. I liked hearing some of the pieces that aren't performed every year -- "If God Be For Us" is such a beautiful interplay between soloist and orchestra and it was especially gorgeous with this soprano. I liked watching the conductor and enjoyed his interpretations -- I thought "Since by Man Came Death" was very effective with the acapella and dynamic changes.
So thank you for a very delightful musical evening. I was singing with you in my head!
Taylor Harper, bass, says,
I have a few things to add from my pov as an audience member.
Whenever a the chorus stood up, everyone in the audience got ready to be blown away, and we were- Everytime.
When a soloist stood up, the intensity of musical tension (the oh so best kind) seemed to fade away from the audience. In fact the person next to me woke up for every chorus number, but for almost every solo, he embarked on a quest for z's.
In my opinion as an audience member I really only liked the Bass and Soprano. The bass soloist to me would do something where I would think "What on earth are you doing" in one line, and in the next line do something that would blow me away musically. I felt like he was redeeming himself to me every other line. Overall he was great. The Soprano I didn't understand her schwa's for awhile, but I got used to them- her tone and fluidity was just beautiful.
The tenor and alto soloists, as an audience member, were excruciating. Maybe they sounded different from where you were Roger, but in the audience most of the time heads in the audience went down.. The alto's facial expressions would keep changing every second in a wide variety of ways, but her voice never changed to how much she looked like she should.. It was actually kind of awkward. The tenor did some very strange things, very strange vowels, I just did not care for him one bit. I saw this on Saturday Night- have to say as a whole- it was lovely. Some of the tempos I thought for sure y'all would pass out- so that was exciting. The orchestra sounded great- BUT I wish I could have heard the freaking harpsichord! Melismas and Harpsichords, that's what I think when I think Handel in general lol. Again, I thought the chorus really stole the show.
Addition to my comment on the tenor- in part the first, his solos.. For a long time he would be singing softly, but consonants everywhere were blasted. It was very off-putting.
Phil Lewis answers,
Well, on Thursday night in SL, I thought the tenor vastly superior to the other soloists, and so did everyone else I talked to. His tone was clean, and the text came through clearer than I have ever heard it. I guess we like our consonants blasted.
And from Laurie Reynolds, alto,
I was directly in front of the alto, in the 5th row, and felt she probably couldn't be heard behind me or to the sides. I also saw no facial expression whatsoever. (Not sure what Taylor was looking at!) Felt like I was straining to hear her... Always the same volume and lack of musical expression, too. (Very little.) Made me wonder how she won the things the program said she won. Uninteresting sound (although through her range I did indeed hear every gear shift) - with no expression. The soprano looked like a little doll in her red with black hair, and sounded angelic. I thought the soloists were consistent with each other - they all were very clean sounding, without a lot of vibrato, so the melismas were all very clear. I did miss ornamentation - it's part of what makes Handel individual. I'll admit that I'm biased towards the bass, as he's a friend, but I thought his lean, clean sound was wonderful, and the soprano did a lovely, clear job. The tenor had a nice sound but didn't quite fit with the bass or soprano, and the alto was worthless filler. I love the alto solos, and she didn't do anything with any of them. She also really messed up on the Hallelujah Chorus in numerous places, while looking at the score! As for the chorus - you all really knew what you were doing, although sometimes it was really hard to hear the alto line, and the sopranos sounded weak, especially on the whole Part the First. The later Choruses, where you were allowed to get louder, sounded better. I could hear the little 'tricks' to get individual notes out in fast passages in the bass part especially, although the sopranos were 'tricky', too, in a couple of places. The tenor note was particularly prominent in the end chord of two or three of the Choruses that end loudly. Odd, that. And, contrary to Taylor's reaction, I found myself asleep twice in early really soft Choruses that didn't seem to have an arc. But that's not the fault of the chorus - ya'll did just as asked! In fact, I wondered, after the first Chorus, if they should have set the stage up in a more shallow arc so that the Chorus would be more forward and not sound so distant. But I guess that was what he wanted, because later ya'll sounded 'right there'. I realize that many sopranos were sick, but with equal numbers of men and women it was interesting to hear how the men were overpowering the women. I think we, as a chorus, are not used to equal numbers of men and women... Overall, however, a lovely performance!
And the difference between the 'operatic' approach and 'cantata' approach was really brought home, as I went directly from HSO Messiah to the Chapelwood Methodist sing-along that evening. Tom (Jaber) secured the 'operatic' type voices as soloists: Richard Paul Fink, bass, young tenor Cameron Schutza, Andrea Jaber, mezzo, and young Rice soprano Julia Dawson. Pretty big, heavy, operatic voices all. Kinda fun to compare and contrast!
It's always interesting to see how different opinions are on these performances.
Finally, I should make some comments about the Christmas Pops. What can I say? It was the Pops, the audience liked it and if the audience is happy I'm happy. We did a lot of singing, including an a capella "In Silent Night" number that worked pretty well. This concert series was unique in my experience in that there were no jokes and no comedy -- no whippist, no Houston wise men in firemen's gear who "came from a-far". (Rim shot here). What it did have which was memorable was a number titled "Bring Them Home" that was accompanied by photos and videos of soldiers, their families, and finally the soldiers reuniting with their families. With all the troops coming home from Iraq this seemed pretty timely. Many of us in the chorus found it very moving, and I think the audience did, too. The tenor soloist was very competent and consistent in a Broadway style, and he got a big reaction from the audience. Well, consistent except for the one time he forgot an entrance in "Silver Bells" and just vamped around the stage as if he knew what he was doing for a whole page or more. I'm sure that the audience didn't realize anything unless they noticed some of us in the chorus turning our pages back and forth with a "Where the heck are we" expression. I think that the women sort of filtered in more or less where they were supposed to, but that was OK since it was just background "oohing" anyway.
Here's a comment from a non-chorus member:
I attended the Symphony’s Very Merry Pops concert last weekend as I’ve done in years past and felt that the chorus was a tremendous asset to the program. In particular, the a capella number performed was stunning – exemplary tone, on pitch, beautifully blended and exquisitely presented. Thank you for adding such sparkle to the evening.