PETER WILLIAMS
Directed by Stephen Rowley, music by Charpentier and Handel. St Matthew's Church, Hastings. Sunday, November 19. Reviewed by Peter Williams.
Music at Christmas would not be complete without a performance of the immortal music of Handel's Messiah, so it was welcome that this concert featured part one of the oratorio.
Although
the choir is small with some parts at times sounding a little uneven, Stephen Rowley knew how to draw the best from the singers with very lively presentations of favourite choruses such as And the Glory of the Lord, Glory to God and For Unto Us a Child is Born. The balance of parts was not always ideal in the more contrapuntal choruses such as And He Shall Purify and His Yoke is Easy, but the speeds chosen ensured that the diction was clear and the separate parts were well defined.
The four soloists - tenor Ross Lange in his rhythmically alert singing of Ev'ry Valley Shall be Exalted, Joseph Christensen with strongly contrasted dynamics in But Who May Abide, mezzo-soprano Tamara Buckland with well defined phrasing in O Thou That Tellest and the light clear tone of Natalie Stent's soprano voice in Come Unto Him - showed examples of straightforward presentations of the recitatives and airs, in all cases communicating the spirit and the style of the music very clearly.
The string ensemble, led by violinist José McGoverne, and harpsichordist Adrienne van Drimmelen, effectively set the tone of the performance with their stylish playing of the Overture and later an abbreviated Pastoral Symphony, and provided excellent support for both choir and soloists.
The second half was devoted to the Midnight Mass for Christmas by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The character of each of the six sections of the traditional Latin Mass was effectively communicated with Rowley again paying careful attention to tempi and dynamics.
However, despite some well sung sections, the Latin words were frequently unclear and some of the solo parts, sung from within the choir by the Messiah soloists, plus soprano Janet Smith and tenor Scott Marryatt, which, despite providing effective contrast to the choral parts, at times sounded insecure and were not always clearly projected.
Visiting organist Alison Stewart from Huntley School, Marton and harpsichordist van Drimmelen gave very strong and confident support to the singers, although the organ part would perhaps have benefited from greater variety of registration.
