Handel
was a dextrous composer when he set to work: he wrote this
large oratorio in little more than five weeks, between 5
May and 13 June 1748. The first performance was at Covent
Garden on 17 March the following year and it obviously didn’t
make much of an impression. It was given three times that
season and then it was another ten years before it was dusted
off and played twice, heavily cut.
It
has never been able to challenge some of the more dramatic – or
shall we say operatic – oratorios but there is one number
here that most music-lovers know: the sinfonia that opens
part III, popularly known as The Arrival of the Queen
of Sheba. This is lively and vivacious music and it reflects
the character of the oratorio at large, where there is a
high proportion of fast and springy music. It is spectacularly
orchestrated with lots of timpani and trumpets – not uncommon
in Handel to be sure, but there’s also very inventive word-painting.
For example the chorus that concludes part I, where the chorus
sing While nightingales lull them to sleep with their
song and a solo violin imitates the birds’ trills.
I
have no closer knowledge of existing rival recordings, except
John Eliot Gardiner’s Philips version, set down more than
twenty years ago – how time flies! Like Martini on the present
set Gardiner also employs period instruments. The biggest
difference is the number of them: Martini has fifteen strings,
Gardiner twenty-seven. Gardiner also employs more woodwinds
and horns, thus producing a larger sound while still getting
the transparency that one associates with period instruments.
This doesn’t mean that Martini’s band lacks heft, on the
contrary his players have all the power needed. Without going
into detailed comparisons I can truthfully say that Martini
in no way comes out second best. He secures a vitality in
the playing from the first chords of the overture that he
never allows to slacken. The whole performance is permeated
with zest and joy – which of course doesn’t mean that the
more deeply felt inward and brooding numbers lack feeling.
By
and large this live performance finds the right balance and
recorded straight off at a single live performance one gets
a feeling of continuity, which is not always the case with
studio efforts, recorded in bits and pieces. The choir, which
Martini himself started in 1965, is well versed in Martini’s
intentions and since they have made a speciality of Handel
performances - several of them recorded by Naxos - we also
feel the conviction in the singing. That it is a live recording
is nothing one notices while listening; I even listened to
large sections with headphones and could not detect any unwanted
noises.
The
recording venue seems to be quite spacious, since there is
an aura around the choral sound that in one or two places
can seem plush, but in general it’s a well defined sound.
I believe that the choir is placed in a wide half-circle
behind the orchestra with the soloists fairly close, maybe
in front of the orchestra, for they seem to be in a slightly
less reverberant acoustic. Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir is
superb but these German singers are in the same league.
In
the liner notes Martini states that “a performance of this
work must … always be uncut.” In this respect Gardiner has
a different opinion: “I cannot agree with those purists who
consider it an abomination to omit a single semiquaver from
Handel’s oratorios. Handel, practical musician that he was,
felt obliged from time to time to write an aria or two for
minor characters, just to keep them happy, thereby bringing
the action almost to a halt. Unfortunately there are a few
such arias in ‘Solomon’…”: quoted from an interview with
Gardiner by Carol Felton in the booklet for the original
LP issue of Solomon. This led Gardiner to cut The
Queen of Sheba’s first and Solomon’s last aria, two of Zadok’s
airs and one of the Levite’s. He also removed the final chorus
and in its place substituted the more imposing Praise
the Lord with harp and tongue. I can feel sympathy with
all of these decisions; several of the aforementioned arias
are fairly empty with lots of florid singing that requires
excellent singers but leading nowhere in particular. On the
other hand it is good to have the score complete and then
it is up everyone’s discretion to skip the parts one doesn’t
like.
The
original final chorus, by the way, is more lightweight than Praise
the Lord, but still brings the work to a jubilant end.
A
look at the casts reveals that Gardiner has the more starry
singers. There are baroque specialists like Carolyn Watkinson,
Nancy Argenta, Anthony Rolfe Johnson and, as The Queen of
Sheba, Barbara Hendricks, no less. Of course they sing extremely
well, but Martini’s less famous line-up is, on the whole,
just as good. Solomon is sung by Polish mezzo Ewa Wolak,
who has a somewhat occluded tone with thicker textures, making
her at times sound matronly; at others she sounds almost
like a counter-tenor. Even though Carolyn Watkinson’s brighter
sound seems more appropriate for the King, Wolak is quite
successful. It is a big voice but in the last aria (the one
cut by Gardiner) she surprises with very skilful florid singing.
Elisabeth Scholl, who besides singing the Queen also doubles
as Second Woman, displays a lithe voice with warmth but not
always ideally steady. She sings brilliantly though in the
Second Woman’s Thy sentence. The Scottish soprano
Nicola Wemyss as the First Woman is at her very best in Beneath
the vine. Beautiful singing of a beautiful aria – and
the flutes are lovely. She also makes the most of The Queen
of Sheba’s two arias. The tenor Knut Schoch as Zadok is greatly
impressive. He has all the technical skill to negotiate his
complicated coloratura and sings with great beauty of tone.
We have to be grateful to Martini that he didn’t cut any
of Zadok’s arias, so exquisitely does Schoch sing them. The
Levite’s part also requires florid singing and Matthias Viweg
has no difficulties in getting his manly, steady bass-baritone
through the roulades.
We
have to do without the sung texts, unless we download them
from the internet, but Martini does provide an excellent
synopsis. The long oratorio, 2:40:07, has unbelievably been
squeezed onto only two CDs, the first of them running for
81:06; I don’t believe I have come across a longer playing
time.
Coming
back to Handel’s music after some time, or experiencing something
by him for the first time, always gives the same positive
effect. What marvellous tunes he wrote and what vitality
there is almost everywhere in his oeuvre. I hadn’t listened
to Solomon this side of the turn of the millennium
but it was like meeting an old friend and realising how much
I had missed him. I was deeply engrossed in this performance
from beginning to end and I can’t see many Handel lovers
being disappointed. No big names, perhaps, but excellent
musicians doing an excellent and inspired job. At the Naxos
give-away price I urge all Handelians to invest.
Göran Forsling
see also review by Glyn Pursglove
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Ewa Wolak
(mezzo) – Solomon; Elisabeth Scholl (soprano) – Pharaoh’s
Daughter, Queen/Second Woman; Nicola Wemyss (soprano) – Nicaule,
Queen of Sheba/First Woman; Knut Schoch (tenor) – Zadok/Attendant;
Matthias Vieweg (bass) – Levite; 
