SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Purcell, Handel, Haydn:  Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble, cond. Marc Minkowski, Nicholas Jenkins, chorus master; Lucy Crowe (soprano) Nathalie Stutzmann (contralto) David Bates (countertenor) Anders J. Dahlin, Richard Croft (tenors) Neil Baker (bass-baritone) Luca Tittoto (bass)  Barbican Hall, London, 18. 1. 2009 (ME)

Purcell, Hail! Bright Cecilia
Handel, Ode for St Cecilia’s Day
Haydn, Missa Cellensis – Kyrie; Gloria

Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions

To all musicians, appear and inspire:

Translated Daughter, come down and startle

Composing mortals with immortal fire.


Auden’s words, as used by Benjamin Britten in his Hymn to St Cecilia, perfectly express the inspirational nature of the role of Music’s patron saint – ‘And your patron’ as Marc Minkowski finely put it in his succinct introduction to this beautifully structured programme. The central work was Handel’s Ode, written in 1739 to Dryden’s text, and infrequently performed despite its obvious splendour, but unsurprisingly so given that it requires tenor and soprano soloists capable of the most dizzying flights and the most tender nuances. It did not entirely get both on this occasion; Richard Croft is a very experienced, very confident musician with a finely cultivated voice, but his technique is not of the most stunning, and his tone lacks freedom at the top. Nevertheless, he phrased his first aria with sensitivity and negotiated the frightening divisions of ‘The trumpet’s loud clangour’ with skill.

Lucy Crowe’s very light, agile soprano has been growing on me for some time now, and this was her best performance to date. ‘What passion cannot Music raise and quell’ was mellifluously phrased, and the superficially easy ‘But oh! What art can teach’ given exceptional expressiveness – I loved the opening out of the voice at ‘the scared organ’s praise.’ The final solo and chorus was superb: Handel is at his greatest when writing what might be called duels, rather than duets, and here the soprano and trumpet strive to equal each other in lines such as ‘The trumpet shall be heard on high’ on this occasion really making you believe that Music could raise the dead and ‘untune the sky.’ 

Purcell’s ‘Ode for St Cecilia’s Day’ was the first piece of music featuring a counter-tenor that I ever heard, and Alfred Deller’s voice held me fascinated in the wonderful alto solos. Anders J. Dahlin’s light, flexible tenor does not have the enrapturing quality of a Deller, but his vocal production is low on vibrato and high on long-breathed lines, both essential in this music – he sang ‘Tis Nature’s voice’ and ‘The airy violin’ with elegance and forthrightness. I was less impressed with the bass-baritone Neil Baker and the bass Luca Tittoto at this point. There was some wonderful instrumental work to savour here, especially the oboes and trumpets, and the choir, after a muted start, suddenly seemed to burst into vibrant life at the closing chorus.

Haydn’s Missa Cellensis is an unjustly neglected work, here given a defining performance, or at least that much of it which we can be certain is genuinely attributable to the composer. Set in a glorious, expansive C major, it is a solemn, life-affirming work with a sense of public occasion about it, more a work for a coronation (or an Inauguration, perhaps, on this day of all days) than a religious feast. The choir of LMDLG excelled itself here – I have seldom heard such finely graduated tonal contrasts – and it was given wonderful support by orchestral playing of the highest standard. Lucy Crowe sang the ‘Laudamus te’ with sweetness, and both Natalie Stutzmann and Luca Tittoto covered themselves in glory, although the best bass singing was yet to come.

‘I wonder what they’ll do for an encore’ my husband remarked – but this proved to be no joke, when Minkowski appeared to ask the audience if ‘you would be interested in hearing the two best parts of the rest?’ Of course we would, and we got a poetic, intense ‘Et Incarnatus est’ from Richard Croft, and a ‘Crucifixus’ which featured some of the most truly sepulchral bass singing I’ve ever heard. A long but very rewarding evening at the Barbican – and gratifying for lovers of Purcell and Handel that a large audience had turned out to hear some of  those composers’ less well known works in their anniversary year. More visits from Minkowski and ‘Les Musiciens du Louvre’ please.

Melanie Eskenazi

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