Do we need another version
of Joshua when there is such
a splendid version already in the catalogue?
(James Bowman, Emma Kirkby, John Mark
Ainsley et al with the King’s Consort
on Hyperion CDA66461/2 – see reference
to this recording in review
of a live King’s Consort performance.)
If this new recording had been offered
at significantly below full price, the
answer might have been more clear-cut;
as it is, the recommended price of £22,
is close to the price at which many
dealers are offering the Hyperion.
The
presentation is certainly up to full-price
standard with a colourful booklet, little
if any inferior to the Hyperion. I can,
for example, do no better to describe
the raison d’être of this
version than to quote K&K’s own
note from the booklet:
This recording is part of a cycle
of old testament oratorios by G. F.
Handel and is one of the many concerts
performed at Maulbronn monastery over
the past years. The series combines
authentically performed baroque oratorios
with the optimal acoustics and atmosphere
of this unique monastic church. This
ideal location demands the transparency
of playing and the interpretive unveiling
of the rhetoric intimations of the
composition, which is especially aided
by the historically informed performance.
The music is exclusively performed
on reconstructed historical instruments,
which are tuned to the pitch customary
in the composers [sic] lifetime (a
= 415 Hz).
Omit
the loaded adjectives, such as ‘optimal’
and ‘unique’ and you have a clear mission
statement in an idiomatic English translation,
if a little wordy and Germanic in tone.
Some
information on the circumstances in
which Handel composed Joshua
might have been welcome. Newcomers might
have liked to know, for example, how
the patriotic mood following the suppression
of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 was
reflected in the oratorios of the period,
Judas Maccabæus, Alexander
Balus and Joshua, with the
rousing chorus See, the conqu’ring
hero comes, first appearing in Joshua,
which later become more famously attached
to revivals of Judas Maccabæus
and later resurfaced as the tune of
an Easter hymn.
Earlier
recordings in this series have included
such luminaries as Emma Kirkby (Jephtha
– see review)
and Nancy Argenta (Saul – see
review,
Solomon – see review),
though the general opinion has been
that these K&K live recordings have
not shown them at their best. Some of
those earlier recordings have been devoid
of libretto, so I am pleased to report
that the omission has been put right.
I might still prefer to print out the
libretto from the website, however,
as the yellow-on-dark-blue used throughout
the booklet is hardly easy on the eyes,
especially for those of us with presbyopia.
(An alternative source for the libretto
is the Stanford
website.) The
poetry is printed as poetry throughout
and there is an odd typo here and there
(bought for brought and
an orthographically impossible her’s,
for example).
Whilst
I am grumbling about the booklet, let
me point out that Mark LeBrocq can hardly
be a graduate of St Catherine’s College,
Cambridge – as a graduate of St Catherine’s
at the ‘other place’, I happen to know
that the Cambridge college mis-spells
the name as ‘Catharine’. And who is
this person ‘Hadyn’ to whom the notes
refer several times? Nor can the notes
decide whether the character is called
Othaniel or Othniel.
Those
earlier recordings have sometimes been
cut in order to fit them onto two CDs;
the present recording presents the complete
1748 version. I have no reason to doubt
this claim, especially as the K&K
text corresponds with the Stanford version,
with slight differences in numbering
of the sections.
The
Hannoversche Hofkapelle play on authentic
instruments, as witness the valveless
trumpet clearly visible in one of the
photographs in the booklet. They give
a measured performance of the Overture
– stylish enough, but their period-performance
credentials are not especially in evidence
here. Their big moment is the Solemn
March during the circumvention of the
ark, at the beginning of Act II. Here
they try too hard to be solemn and drag
out the music interminably – and the
wind intonation is not exactly spot-on,
reminiscent of the early days of authentic
performance when wind instruments were
routinely out of tune. Their two flourishes
of warlike sounds on the second CD are
much more effective.
The
Maulbronner Kammerchor give a sprightly
performance of the opening chorus but
their heavily accented pronunciation
meant that I hardly recognised what
they were singing as English – redolent
of the awful accents of the German military
in a bad war movie – and had to look
at the libretto to catch the words.
The tenors and basses render their English
words slightly better than the female
voices, but this opening chorus hardly
augurs well. By their second appearance
their diction appears to have improved
– perhaps they just needed to get into
gear by hearing the English-speaking
soloists? – and they give an impressive
account of the passage over the Jordan,
well supported by the accompaniment.
They are mostly well balanced against
the orchestra.
By the
time we come to the victorious chorus
marking the destruction of Jericho the
Kammerchor are in fine voice; the lively
power of this chorus contrasts strongly
with the dreary performance of the preceding
Solemn March. This chorus has to be
dramatic, since it is the only way in
which Handel can depict the fall of
the great city and it is dramatically
rendered here. The Kammerchor also round
off the first CD with a rousing account
of Thy mercy did with Israel dwell.
The
mood at the beginning of the second
CD is much more subdued; Caleb and the
Chorus capture the feeling of dejection
here well without overdoing the effect.
The Chorus at the end of Act II, Behold
the list’ning sun, and again at
the beginning of Act III, Hail! Mighty
Joshua, round off the one act and
begin the next in good form.
They
begin their big moment in See the
conqu’ring hero comes with power
in reserve, power which is well brought
out in the reprise, though the poor
diction is here again in evidence to
spoil the effect. The final chorus suffers
from the same problem of diction, though
the effect here is less harmful and
they provide a generally effective send-off
to the oratorio.
The
soloists are all native English speakers,
but Mark LeBrocq sounds rather stilted
in his first recitative, as if he has
been put off by the chorus. Otherwise
he makes a good impression from the
start – but why did Handel make Joshua
wait so long for his first air? By track
7 he sounds much less awkward, though
he could, perhaps, have sounded a little
more authoritative as he gives directions
for the selection of the judges.
When
Joshua finally gets his chance to shine,
LeBrocq gives a good rendition of the
accompagnato So long the memory shall
last. A stylish orchestral lead-in
is followed by a fine account of While
Kedron’s brook, where he takes every
opportunity to relish the poetic language
which the librettist (probably Morrell)
has given him. By thinking himself into
the part, his singing is totally appropriate
to his role at that point. In his recitative
which opens Act II, however, in which
he proclaims the fate of Jericho, he
sounds less convincing.
Joshua’s
recit Whence this dejection effectively
changes the mood of dejection at the
start of CD2; he and the chorus offer
a lively account of With redoubled
rage, though leBrocq is balanced
slightly backward against the chorus
and orchestra.
As Caleb,
James Rurtherford gets an early chance
to shine with O first in wisdom
and he makes a very good fist of this
air. Caleb then has to wait until Act
II before he gets another recit and
air, The walls are levell’d ... See,
see, the raging flames. I didn’t
find him as impressive here, his fairly
light bass voice not really well suited
to the apocalyptic utterance The
fatal day of wrath of come, which
he delivers in a rather matter-of-fact
manner, though he rounds off the air
with a convincing proud Jericho
hath met her doom.
Rutherford
more than atones for his intrusive r
in Jehova-r-is the word (CD2,
tr.12) with his beautifully contemptuous
delivery of the word dastard
(CD2, tr.16). His rendition of Shall
I in Mamre’s fertile plain shows
that he is capable of some very effective
quiet singing and reminds us that it
is not only in the moments of exultation
that Handel’s genius strikes the right
note.
Miriam
Allan as Achsah has a pleasant, light-toned
voice. I was not surprised to discover
that she was a graduate of Emma Kirkby’s
master class. Sometimes she is little
too lightweight and is slightly overwhelmed
by the accompaniment. More seriously,
she does not get enough rejoicing into
her first air, where her account of
Who will not on Jordan smile, releas’d
from bondage on the Nile? sounds
rather unsmiling. Dramatic involvement
can be just as important in oratorio
as in opera and I did not feel she was
quite enough into her role here. Perhaps
a livelier direction from Jürgen
Budday would have helped her to smile
a little more.
In her
brief role as the Angel, too, Allan
is not quite ideal: she does not sound
authoritative enough in her recitative.
She summons more energy in her accompagnato
Leader of Israel but even here
she does not exult as she should at
the envisaged fate of Jericho. It is
left to Joshua in his ensuing recit
and air to convey the determination
and menace which are lacking in the
angel’s voice.
In Act
II, Allen sings very effectively in
As cheers the sun and Happy,
oh thrice happy we. In her big Act
III aria, Oh! Had I Jubal’s lyre
she finally hits the right note – this
really is a soloist with Miriam’s
tuneful voice, of which she sings.
David
Allsop (Othniel) is billed on the K&K
website as a countertenor and in the
booklet as an alto. Whichever you choose
to call him, he has a powerful voice
and is mostly well able to rise above
the accompaniment without strain in
a way which countertenors do not always
find easy.
In Act
II he sounds a little too unwarlike
in Heroes when with glory burning
and, to a lesser extent, in Nations
who in future story. In Act III
he sounds rather more psyched up in
Place danger around me, though
still more convincing in his assertions
of love for Achsah than in his heroic
protestations.
One
wonders if the librettist and Handel
were really interested in the drama
of the fall of Jericho: the love affair
between Othniel and Achsah seems to
have interested Morrell much more and
here both soloists sing well. The language
of Othniel’s In these blest scenes
is pure eighteenth-century pastoral,
complete with ‘enamelle’d fields’ of
an age before the Romantic poets began
to see nature as it really is. Stilted
though the diction is, Handel offers
the opportunity for some really affective
singing, well taken in Othniel’s Hail!
Lovely virgin and even more so in
Achsah’s Hark! ‘tis the linnet,
both of which are excellently sung,
the latter in Handels’s revised and
expanded (1752?) version, the only variation
from the 1748 text. The accompaniment
to Achsah’s air is especially sensitive.
The
duet between Achsah and Othniel, Our
limpid streams is also effectively
sung. Only after this pastoral interlude
do we return with a flourish of trumpets
to the martial theme, with Othniel marching
off to win glory and to gain Caleb’s
consent to his union with Achsah. Othniel’s
recitative at least sounds like the
utterance of someone setting off to
conquer and the Chorus which rounds
off Act I is also convincingly sung.
When
Achsah joins her father Caleb in commenting
on the fate of Jericho (To vanity
and earthly Pride) Handel gives
her a wistful rather than exultant air,
a tone which Allan captures very effectively.
If only Rutherford, as Caleb, had been
more exultant in the preceding air,
the contrast would have been very effective.
The
Othniel/Achsah duet at the end of Act
III is just as effective as in the Act
II interlude.
The
recording is more than acceptable, though
a little heavy. No doubt the venue’s
acoustic and difficulties of live recording
are chiefly to blame, though the separate
SATB strands in the choruses are very
well captured spatially by the recording
engineers.. The photographs in the booklet
show a large array of microphones, which
should have given the engineers opportunities
to jiggle the balance, yet occasionally
the soloists are not well balanced against
the chorus and/or the orchestra. Perhaps
a simpler microphone arrangement would
have lightened the texture of the sound.
The harpsichord and chamber organ are
more evident in the photograph in the
booklet than on the actual recording.
A generous
number of tracks from the recording
are available as MP3 previews on the
K&K website,
where you will also find all the material
from the booklet, including the full
libretto.
The
notes do not give timings for the individual
CDs but indicate an overall 147 minutes,
which is somewhat longer than 132:42,
the combination of the highest timings
indicated by any of my CD players.
Had
I been present at this performance,
I am sure that I would have joined in
the applause preserved at the end of
the second CD – I certainly would not
have felt short-changed. Had the Hyperion
version not been available, I could
have given this recording a more hearty
welcome. As it is, the best outshines
the mostly good.
Brian
Wilson
for details
Maulbronner Kammerchor; Hannoversche Hofkapelle/Jürgen
Budday 
