In a sense this release brings my experience to date of Messiah on
CD full circle. The very first Messiah that I acquired
was a live recording, also from St. John’s Smith Square
and captured by Hyperion. That was the 1985 version by The Sixteen
and Harry Christophers (now on Hyperion’s Dyad label CDD22019),
which I still regard highly. Since then several other CD versions
of Handel’s great masterpiece have found their way onto
my shelves, including the fine Trevor Pinnock DG Archiv (see review)
and the Dunedin Consort for Linn (see review).
This new Hyperion release is one that I was keen to hear as soon
as it was announced because it features Stephen Layton and his
choir, Polyphony, an ensemble that I admire greatly. They have
given annual Christmas performances of Messiah at St
John’s
for quite some years now and this recording was mainly captured
at their concerts in December 2008. After I had drafted my
review I found that the performance they had given the previous
evening,
on 21 December, had been attended by my MusicWeb colleague,
Melanie Eskenazi (see review).
I was pleased to find that Melanie was as taken as I was by the
fine singing of Polyphony. I think, however, that I feel a little
more positive than she did about the soloists.
Tenor Allan Clayton is the first that we hear. He makes a favourable
impression in ‘Comfort ye’, producing a clear and
clean tone. The passagework of ‘Ev’ry valley’,
taken at a brisk pace, is negotiated deftly and Clayton imparts
the proper urgency to this aria. Later on he’s sensitive
in the Passion Arias in Part Two and has the right steely tone
for ‘Thou shalt break them’. I was a little disappointed
that, after Clayton had sung the Passion arias convincingly,
Stephen Layton allotted ‘But thou didst not leave his soul
in hell’ to soprano Julia Doyle. She sings the aria well
enough but this is a turning point in the oratorio, where sorrow
and despair give way to hope. One can make out a plausible case,
therefore, for a change of singer at this point, which I assume
is the way Layton sees it, but I think there’s at least
as much musical - and theological - justification for having
the same singer illustrate the change of mood and I’d
have preferred to hear Clayton at this point.
Miss Doyle is a singer I don’t believe I’ve heard
before. She has a pleasing, clear voice and she sings persuasively
- though I don’t care for a couple of her ornaments and
I think she over-decorates the line in ‘He shall feed his
flock’. She sings ‘Rejoice, greatly, O daughter of
Zion’ with joyful eagerness, choosing the 4/4 version -
I rather prefer the version in 12/8, which seems to me to dance
more. I enjoyed much of her singing though I can see what Melanie
Eskenazi meant in her concert review when she refers to the tone
as “somewhat unvaried”. In three of Miss Doyle’s
arias later in the work Stephen Layton has the orchestral violin
line played by a solo instrument. I’ve never heard these
pieces done this way before. However, by paring the ensemble
down to a solo violin and continuo - rather in the manner of
a Bach cantata aria - Layton achieves a feeling of intimacy
that I like very much.
The other soloist whose voice is new to me is bass Andrew Foster-Williams.
He has a fine vocal presence and I enjoyed his contributions
very much. ‘Thus says the Lord’ sets the tone for
much of his work to follow. The divisions are clearly articulated
and his voice is powerful yet never unwieldy. Later in the work
he gives a commanding account of ‘Why do the nations’ -
the passage at ‘The kings of the earth rise up’ is
especially impressive - and the long, difficult passages in triplets
are cleanly negotiated. The strings of the Britten Sinfonia add
greatly to the excitement in this aria. His account of ‘The
trumpet shall sound’, in which he’s partnered by
the superb, silvery trumpet playing of Paul Archibald, is quite
splendid and I’m only sorry that the da capo section
of this aria was left out.
By some distance, however, the stand-out soloist is counter-tenor
Iestyn Davies. Some recordings, including the aforementioned
ones directed by Harry Christophers and Trevor Pinnock, split
the alto arias between a male and a female singer. Generally
I prefer this because I feel some arias, such as ‘He was
despised’ suit a female voice. I can only say that Davies’s
singing completely stills any such objection. He opens with a
wonderful account of ‘But who may abide’, the da
capo sensitively and imaginatively decorated. The central
section, ‘For he is like a refiner’s fire’,
is bitingly incisive and the orchestral strings attack the music
with gusto - some may be taken aback by this - and with tremendous
use of dynamic contrast, all of which acts as a marvellous foil
to Davies’s fiery singing. I love his fluent delivery of ‘O
thou that tellest’, where his excellent use of ornamentation
enhances the vocal line beautifully. He reserves some of his
best singing for ‘He was despised’, which he sings
with dignity and fine expression. His performance is beautifully
controlled, both musically and emotionally, and the da capo section
is even more expressive than what has gone before. Everything
Davies does in this Messiah enhances his growing reputation.
But I concur with Melanie Eskenazi’s view that it’s
Polyphony that are the collective stars of this performance.
They sing throughout with great assurance and agility. The ensemble
is always clear and crisp and the balance between the vocal parts
is as well judged as you could wish. The choir consists of nine
sopranos, seven altos (four of which are male), eight tenors
and seven basses. That’s just enough singers to give the
right amount of body to the big moments but small enough for
the choir to sound unfailingly nimble. The mixture of male and
female voices in the alto section brings a welcome blend of warmth
and edge. Some of Stephen Layton’s tempi are challenging
- though never eccentrically fast - but his singers meet and
surmount every challenge that he or Handel sets them. I’ve
heard Polyphony in a good deal of less familiar repertoire, much
of it quite modern, but it’s good to find that they’re
just as adept in the core repertoire. I’m not going to
give a series of examples - please take the excellence of their
singing on trust - but I must just mention the very end of the
work. After a blazing, majestic account of ‘Worthy is the
Lamb’, sung with fervour and wonderfully incisive rhythms,
Layton achieves something of a coup at the start of
the ‘Amen’.
He has his choir begin this quite quietly and unaccompanied,
singing with smooth legato. The restrained dynamic is maintained
when the strings take over after the first twenty bars and
then, when the chorus re-enters [at 1:22] they do so with a
blazing forte and
the effect is hugely dramatic. Thereafter the chorus is sung
with marvellous affirmation and though I think Layton sustains
the general pause before the last three bars for a little longer
than is necessary this ‘Amen’ chorus provides an
imposing and fittingly fervent conclusion to the performance.
The orchestral accompaniment by the Britten Sinfonia is assured
and alert throughout. The orchestra plays on modern instruments
but they are fully engaged with period style, especially in the
lack of vibrato among the strings. The string sections number
6/5/2/2/1 but I suspect that Layton reduces the number of violins
at times. The playing is consistently stylish and to be honest
you might think you were listening to a period band. They support
the singers - soloists and choir - excellently. Incidentally,
Stephen Layton gives us only the short form of the Pastoral Symphony
in Part One, a decision of which I approve.
Layton’s direction of the oratorio is wholly convincing.
There are one or two very small details that I wished he had
treated differently but these are too minor to mention. He
often sets brisk tempi but the speeds always make sense and
his performers
are able to cope well and to articulate the music with pleasing
clarity. However, this is not a hasty or brusque Messiah.
The reflective numbers are as well done as are the joyful or
the dramatic ones. Layton clearly loves the work and that shows
through in his direction of it.
It almost goes without saying that Hyperion’s production
values are excellent. The sound is clear and pleasing. The
booklet notes are good and the full libretto is provided, albeit
in quite
small type.
This is a fine Messiah, which I have enjoyed greatly
and to which I know I’ll return often in the future. It’s
a significant contribution to the Handel anniversary celebrations.
Hyperion have no doubt released it to catch the Christmas market
and that’s entirely understandable. But Messiah isn’t
really a Christmas work, despite the seasonal performing tradition
that’s grown up, especially in the UK and in North America.
It’s at least as much of an Easter work. In fact, Messiah is
a year-round work and this excellent recording can and should
be enjoyed whatever the season.
John Quinn
see also review by Brain Wilson
Masterwork Index: All reviews of Messiah
Julian Doyle (soprano);
Iestyn Davies (counter-tenor); Allan Clayton (tenor); Andrew Foster-Williams
(bass) 
