Ebor Singers soloists Alisun Russell Pawley (soprano), top left, Caroline Sartin (alto); Jason Darnell (tenor), bottom left, and Jonty Ward (bass-baritone)
WHEN an event is announced as a gala and includes an imported period band, you naturally prick up your ears. This one not only looked good on paper, it was succulent in reality.
Three works by Handel, culminating in his Dixit Dominus, were further leavened by choral pieces of Purcell and Bach. It was worth every penny of what it must have cost to promote.
Dixit Dominus, a setting of Psalm 109, is the first of three concerted Latin choral works from Handel’s time in Rome, where he was primarily honing his operatic talents at the fountainhead. It dates from April 1707, when he was barely 22.
Although thus youthful, its importance lies in its legacy: many of its pseudo-operatic techniques found their way into his later English church music.
The conductor, Paul Gameson, capitalised on its dramatic moods, which seemed to come naturally to Handel despite his Lutheran background. The title chorus was confidently paced and its succeeding aria, with fluent cello obbligato, smoothly handled by alto Caroline Sartin.
The choir was not disturbed by the tempo changes in ‘Iudicabit’ and the soprano duet with male chorus was equally effective. Only the fugal finale would have benefited from a more relaxed momentum, the sopranos, doubtless tired at the end of a strenuous evening, sounding stretched.
Welcome To All The Pleasures, one of Purcell’s three odes to St Cecilia, made a sprightly opening, with chorus members stepping into the solo roles with flair, as throughout the programme. It was aptly partnered by the tenor cantata Look Down, Harmonious Saint, whose aria was despatched by Jason Darnell with considerable brio, although he reserved touching restraint for its central musings.
The steady pace of the opening Kyrie in Bach’s Lutheran Mass in G was well adapted to its testing chromaticism. The busy strings made the Gloria especially exciting, and Jonty Ward’s crisp bass in ‘Gratias agimus’ was a highlight.
The two oboes danced sweetly through ‘Quoniam tu solus’, accompanying Darnell. Their attentiveness typified the contribution of Manchester Baroque (named twice in the programme as ‘Camerata’), who briefly took the spotlight in a stylishly articulated account of Handel’s D minor Concerto Grosso.
The interval had arrived slightly earlier than planned when a performer fainted. Concertgoers will be relieved to know that after treatment in hospital he was able to return home the next day. The incident made no impact on the success of the evening.
Review by Martin Dreyer