MESSIAH APPEARS IN TWO VERSIONS
Early Music Vancouver chooses a decidedly new type of production
With the onslaught of music for the holidays, one thing is as certain as crowded malls and dark days: Somewhere, some group will be brightening the season with Handel’s ubiquitous Messiah.
As it turns out, there are two main productions this year. The Vancouver Bach Choir will offer a more or less traditional large choir version on Dec. 9 at the Orpheum, with Leslie Dala conducting.
Before that, Early Music Vancouver will stage its first Messiah. a decidedly new type of production employing smaller forces: the Vancouver Cantata Singers, the period instruments of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, and a cast of historically informed singers, including British tenor Charles Daniels, all under the direction of Alexander Weimann.
Daniels is well known to EMV audiences. This will be his first Vancouver Messiah, but far from his first Messiah. When we chatted last week, I asked if he keeps a list. No, he doesn’t. “A lot of people keep tabs, but I don’t. I’m sure I’ve sung Messiah well over a hundred times, and I do try to make it a little different each time.
“My first Messiah was as a little boy in the King’s College choir; we went on to record it, under David Wilcox. Some of the soprano solos were sung by a group of boys, a very daring thing at that time. My chief memory is that it was absolutely freezing in the cathedral!”
While performing the Handel oratorio is always a big deal for any organization, the notion of Messiah has become even more complicated. We now have so many options, including the “historically informed” method.
Though a superb historically informed singer, Daniels isn’t prepared
to be doctrinaire. “I’ve done Messiahs in many different shapes and sizes. Even in those that were rather awful, with amateur orchestras, usually the choirs were well prepared. My largest was with over 900 people in York Minster, a wonderful and moving thing.”
Messiah does have a built-in problem: though originally conceived as something for the last days of Lent, most performances now take place in winter. And that means transportation and weather can play their part in adding to the stress. “I’ve never yet not made it to a performance,” says Daniels. “But once in the late ’90s I was in Spain with a choir and there was a strike on in Madrid, so our plane got grounded for five hours. We didn’t actually take off until past curtain time. But to our amazement, the whole audience sat there and waited for us.”
Health issues can also do their part to upset the best-laid plans. Daniels is prudent: “I take a good supply of vitamins with me at this time of year to ward off the lurgies that everyone dreads coming down with just before a performance.”
Listeners love Messiah — it’s not the most popular oratorio ever for no reason. But what about the performers’ perspective? Do they ever tire of the thing?
“The actual quality of the music bears any number of repetitions,” according to Daniels, “and it speaks its message very clearly and directly. Handel has a very direct line to human emotions, and then supports them with these wonderful tunes.
He knows exactly what to do. It’s sort of a mixture between genius and Occam’s Razor — it’s exactly right at every moment.