VoxCarnyx

St Aloysius, Glasgow

As the instrumentalists set off on the first steps of the marvellous journey that is Handel’s Messiah, it seemed that the opening “Sinfony” was even speedier than conductor’s John Butt’s brisk tempo of memory. And so it proved, with Part One – over which some versions dawdle for more than an hour – coming in at an incredibly brief 50 minutes or so.

Small wonder that tenor Anthony Gregory – most recently seen in Scotland as a memorably-characterised Count Almaviva in Scottish Opera’s Barber of Seville – added a little extravagant ornamentation to his “Comfort ye” while that was feasible. The topography of the “Every valley” that followed was exalted at pace, and that was characteristic of Butt’s direction to the end.

With the soloists stepping out from a chorus of three singers per section, in the Dunedin fashion, his Messiah is always light on its feet, but this performance, in the relatively unfamiliar resonance of the ornate church in Garnethill, was often quite startling. Despite that acoustic, the chorus “For unto us a Child is born” was as clear as it was fast, “His yoke is easy” rarely sounds quite so airy, and “All we, like sheep” gambolled more like Spring lambs.

That chorus ends what was the only sustained passage of more contemplative music – including a deeply moving “He was despised” from Bethany Horak-Hallett – and Part Two approached its conclusion with a fearsomely fast “Why do the nations?”, negotiated with enormous skill by both the string players and bass Matthew Brook.

This was a very fine line-up of soloists, bringing opera performances to the music and Charles Jennens’ inspired selection of Biblical texts. Horak-Hallett was billed as a mezzo but displayed a rich, full contralto range, and soprano Anna Dennis was on sensational form from her virtuosic turn in the Nativity story of Part One through a masterclass of vowel sounds in “How beautiful are the feet”, to technically masterful phrasing in “I know that my Redeemer liveth”, another aria that breathed afresh for being brisker. 

Butt included some music often omitted – not just the mezzo/tenor duet “O death, where is thy sting” in Part Three but also the rarely-heard chorus “Let all the angels of God worship him” and its preceding tenor recitative in Part Two – but the whole concert was still over in two and three-quarter hours, including an interval. Most importantly, the conductor’s tempi meant the narrative bowled along in an exhilarating fashion, and the work of the players and singers, whose diction was exemplary, was always precise and full of expression.

Keith Bruce

Portrait of Bethany Horak-Hallett by Emma Jane Photography