A painstakingly realised Passion, lavishly presented
Nicholas Anderson finds much to enjoy as the Academy of Ancient Music takes on Handel
Handel
Brockes-passion, HWV 48
Elizabeth Watts, Ruby Hughes (soprano), Rachael Lloyd (mezzo-soprano), Tim Mead (countertenor), Robert Murray, Gwilym Bowen, Nicky Spence (tenor), Cody Quattlebaum, Morgan Pearse (bass-baritone); Choir and Orchestra of the Academy of Ancient Music/ Richard Egarr Academy of Ancient Music AAM007 172:46 mins (3 discs) Handel’s setting of Barthold Heinrich Brockes’s non-liturgical poetic Passion, scored for oboes, bassoon, strings and continuo, was premiered in Hamburg in 1719 but was not performed in England where its German text would have been of little general interest.
Following August Wenzinger’s recording in the mid-1960s, Handel’s Brockes-passion suffered decades in the wilderness. Now, there are four competing versions, all of which do fairer justice to the piece than Wenzinger’s somewhat lustreless albeit pioneering endeavour. While the two more recent versions, by Peter Neumann (Carus) and Laurence Cummings (Accent) follow the copy which Handel performed at Leipzig in the late 1740s, Richard
Egarr and his score editor Leo Duarte have cast their net wider, drawing upon other sources. All is meticulously documented in a lavish book containing commentaries, full sung texts and an illuminating essay by Ruth Smith.
This formidably well-documented project is matched by a comparably sympathetic performance. Egarr paces the piece unhurriedly, recognising Handel’s often vivid responses to Brockes’s graphic text and drawing from them deeply felt, contrasting emotions. From among a uniformly strong solo cast, Elizabeth Watts’s Daughter of Zion, a reflective conscience of the work, Robert Murray (Evangelist) and Ruby Hughes (Faithful Soul) – her tender portrayal of the darkness after the Crucifixion, scored for bassoon and strings is affecting – are especially rewarding.
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
★★★★★
★★★★★
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
Richard Egarr draws deeply felt, contrasting emotions