Some showboating as SCO sparkles with another Handel offering
WITH Messiah a staple of the season – and the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union’s 135th New Year concert of that work coming up in the same venue – composer George Frideric Handel’s move from writing operas to biblical storytelling oratorios has had an impact on music-making in the UK for three centuries.
That it was a commercial as well as a musical decision, and that one of the earliest of them, Israel In Egypt, is full of recognisable Handel in the way that Christmas pop hits use sleigh bells and children’s choirs is also true.
The version we hear now dispenses with the original Part 1, and the chorus that opens Part 3 is a very close relative of Zadok The Priest, while the powerful concluding sequence of the work seemed very like a prototype of Messiah in Thursday evening’s performance.
Popular guest conductor Richard Egarr, returning to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for his first visit in a while, was master of all the ingredients of the score.
Sitting astride the piano stool, his harpsichord led the continuo with string principals Stephanie Gonley, Marcus Barcham Stevens and Philip Higham. Skipping around the instrument, he directed the SCO Chorus as diligently as the orchestra, and was rewarded with sparkling, precise ensemble singing, and exemplary diction that made the narrative absolutely clear without any need of reference to the libretto in the printed programme.
The choir, which has the bulk of the music, was the benchmark in that respect, although the soloists were pretty good too, particularly tenor James Gilchrist with his seasoned understanding of his role as storyteller.
Given how little some of them had to do, this was a luxury line-up of soloists, Gilchrist joined by alto Helen Charlston in Part 2, and sopranos Rowan Pierce and Mary Bevan and bass-baritones Ashley Riches and Peter Harvey appearing later.
The cameos were highlights nonetheless, with the soprano duet The Lord Is My Strength an original contrast to that opening chorus after the interval, and Riches and Harvey showboating shamelessly on their The Lord Is A Man Of War a few minutes later, to general delight.
It is almost exactly six years since the SCO and its Chorus last performed Israel In Egypt (with Gilchrist present then too), although the hiatus in choral singing during the pandemic makes it seem more recent.
That concert was in the cramped confines of the Queen’s Hall, however, and the forces the oratorio calls for sounded much better in the larger space.
While the Usher Hall was far from full, the audience would not have fitted into the smaller venue either.