Bach Elgar takes on Handel’s “Israel in Egypt”
“Handel understands effect better than any of us; when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt.”
— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart And what better example to support Mozart’s appraisal of Handel than the oratorio “Israel in Egypt” for double chorus, soloists and orchestra.
You know the story, right? Drawn from the biblical book of Exodus and snippets of Psalm 78, 105 and 106, “Israel in Egypt” recounts God’s power to deliver Israel out of Egyptian slavery via Moses and Aaron.
Striking like a thunderbolt? How about Handel’s musical depiction of the plagues? He underscores the Egyptians’ loathing to drink the Nile’s bloodlaced waters by recycling one of his keyboard fugues flush with pungent chromatic notes. In the ensuing chorus, “Their land brought forth frogs,” hopping orchestral figures conjure up the amphibious infestation.
Whirling notes from the violins portray “all manner of flies and lice in all their quarters.”
The brass and timpani pound away in “He gave them hailstones for rain,” though here Handel reuses and redirects music from a wedding cantata by the Italian composer, Alessandro Stradella. An eerie sounding chromaticism envelops the chorus “He sent a thick darkness over all the land.”
A tad naïve, you say? Well then, how about “He rebuked the Red Sea”? That chorus contains enough silent space between some of the text through which not only the Israelites could pass, but also Dionigi Erba, an Italian composer whose “Magnificat” Handel extensively gutted for use here and elsewhere in the oratorio.
And who better than Handel in uber-majestic mode to set the oratorio’s final part, “Moses’ Song,” with its concluding chorus, “Sing ye to the Lord,” thunderously exclaiming, “the horse and rider hath he thrown into the sea”?
All that and more can be heard Saturday, May 26 at 8 p.m. in St. Thomas the Apostle Church, 715 Centre Rd., Waterdown, as Alex Cann leads his Bach Elgar Choir and Richard Cunningham’s Brantford-based Grand River Chorus plus soloists and a 25piece pickup orchestra in Handel’s “Israel in Egypt.” The concert is repeated on Sunday, May 27 at 3 p.m. in St. Pius X Church, 9 Waverly St., Brantford.
Though Cann had been dreaming of programming this chorusladen oratorio for years — there have been no performances of it by the BEC since 1958, if ever in the choir’s 113 year history — he credits Cunningham, who sang in the BEC for several years, as coming up with the idea of pairing up for Handel’s “Israel.”
“We had discussed a few collaborative possibilities with his group, but this one really got traction,” wrote Cann in an email to The Spectator. “The two choirs are roughly of equal size (55-60 singers each) so a major doublechoir work appealed. ‘Israel in Egypt’ is, and really always has been core repertoire for choral societies, but it really needs 100 singers. So, the chance to do it with 110 plus was too good to let go. The subject matter is powerful, of course, the basis of Passover: foundational for Judaism and extremely important in Christianity. It has resonance for many different cultures, and of course, a story about mass migration and the quest for freedom in the Middle East remains extremely relevant.”
However, Cann and company won’t be performing Handel’s original version, but a later version which deep-sixes the original Part 1 titled, “The Lamentations of the Israelites for the Death of Joseph,” and opens instead with the overture from Handel’s oratorio “Solomon.” In his program notes, Cann also states that they have “followed Handel’s lead in making a few modest cuts to the third part
(“Moses’ Song”) in order to improve the pacing of that movement and achieve a better balance with the solo material.”
Soloists are sopranos Andrea Ludwig and Alexa Wing, tenor Zach Finkelstein, basses Bob Knight and Taylor Webb, plus the aforementioned Mr. Cunningham, counter-tenor.
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Saturday, May 19 at 4 p.m. in the Rock on Locke, 320 Charlton Ave. W., Hammer baroque presents Musicians on the Edge with the Rezonance Ensemble in music by Monteverdi, Dowland and others. Suggested donation: $15.
Saturday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Hamilton Mennonite Church, 143 Lower Horning Rd., Shiori Kobayashi’s Live Chamber Music Series presents a concert, postponed due to the April 14 ice storm, featuring mezzo Karen Gross, Phillip Corke on guitar and Irish bouzouki, violinist Andrea Battista, plus Trio Sorbetto-Cristina Sewerin, oboe, Elizabeth Day, clarinet, Larkin Hinder, bassoon-in music ranging from the 17th century to light jazz. Tickets: $20, senior/student $15. Call 905-628-4980.