Cover image: conductor Ruth Reinhardt (Photo: Seattle Symphony)
Time was when you would hear “Messiah” with huge forces and a lush presentation, far, presumably, from the forces Handel had in mind when he composed it in 1741. But, in the last half century, Baroque performance practice has given us much leaner presentations, closer to Handel’s forces, and gradually that performance style has percolated up to symphony orchestras, including the Seattle Symphony.
Last Friday night, the first of four performances at Benaroya Hall, saw a small orchestra of about 25 players and a much-reduced Seattle Symphony Chorale, with a notably young cadre of soloists and conductor.
On the podium, former SSO conducting fellow, now assistant conductor at the Dallas Symphony, Ruth Reinhardt directed a beautifully nuanced performance, her gestures extremely precise where they needed to be, and expansive where the music bloomed. I particularly liked the way she shaped the phrases in the chorus “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion,” indicating the figurative “lift” in the playing she wanted from the violins.
Tenor Aaron Sheehan is a known quantity in early music performance here. With his expressive voice and body language he was communicating the words to the audience from the first “Comfort ye” to the moving “Behold and see” to the vigorous “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.”
In his first recitative, “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts,” baritone Will Liverman’s arresting, dramatic voice, almost startling in its authority, showed him vocally perfect for the role. While rich and sonorous, the voice is also very cored and clear, though I wished he had looked up at the audience more. “The trumpet shall sound” was a highlight, particularly with the splendid trumpet obbligato by Alexander White, almost as duet with the voice.
Both mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti and soprano Deanna Breiwick (originally from Burien) are rising, talented singers with blossoming careers and agile voices able to encompass Handel’s virtuosic vocal lines, but their voices felt out of place in the SSO’s period style of presenting “Messiah.” The orchestra strings used almost no vibrato and that rarely, and the chorus likewise had a pure sound, between them creating harmonic colors which rang out with clarity. However, Gigliotti had a constant heavy vibrato which overshadowed every note she sang, despite her expressive “He was despised.” Breiwick has an easy reach of the highest notes, and an attractive timbre, but she too used far more vibrato than seemed fitting for this style of performance.
The chorale was the standout. Splendidly trained by Joseph Crnko, assistant conductor for choral activities, each chorus it sang sounded completely fresh. The cadences and shaping of “All we like sheep” brought out the sadness at its end, while the “Hallelujah” chorus was thrilling and brought huge, immediate applause from the audience, which had several times applauded after other sections as well.
Words were included the program and also projected on a screen stage side, but the print was a bit small to read for anyone not fairly close and might have been distracting to those near it.
“Messiah” is so familiar and can be presented so many different ways — tempo, forces, styles all different — but in the end, it’s the magic and the majesty of the music that comes through no matter what. As always, this was well worth the hearing.
