As a fixture on the vacation panorama, Handel’s Messiah feels extra like a model identify than the idiosyncratic, shape-shifting masterpiece that it’s.
However the latter is what fortunately emerged in a trim, just-over-two-hours efficiency by the Philadelphia Orchestra on Thursday on the Kimmel Middle. The catalyst was visitor conductor Jeannette Sorrell, well-known in early-music circles primarily by means of the Cleveland-based however ever-mobile Apollo’s Hearth, which is a major presence in Chicago, New York, and elsewhere.
Handel was by no means an etched-in-stone composer, and in that spirit, Sorrell appears to encourage extremely private ornamentation from the vocal soloists, and typically minimize the instrumentation down to some intimate gamers with herself on harpsichord — whereas additionally drawing first-class choral singing from the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir. Regardless of the fast assemblage that’s typical of vacation live shows, Thursday’s efficiency was the freshest live-concert Messiah I’ve heard in years.
Sorrell’s recording with Apollo’s Hearth, although glorious, appears to name out for the better sustaining energy of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The dotted rhythms of the opening overture can appear halting in Sorrell’s period-instrument Apollo’s Hearth, whereas the Philadelphians, even with a sound scaled again by their very own requirements, provided better rhetorical energy. The conductor’s dedication to the rating yielded some sometimes eccentric phrase readings but in addition important revelations: The chipper refrain “All we like sheep” ended with a weighty coda — “And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of all” — that turned the center of that part.
Vocal soloists in Messiah can appear drained and mismatched beneath the hectic vacation circumstances, however not this quartet. Soprano Sonya Headlam fantastically transitioned between Handel’s extroverted and extra chamber-scaled method, whereas mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke related deeply with the dramatic gravity of “He was despised.” The customarily-heard-here tenor Nicholas Phan was his cultivated, clever self. And although bass-baritones hardly ever sound comfy in Handel’s coloratura passages, Douglas Williams made his remedy of the phrases depend for extra.
A lot distinguished instrumental work was heard from concertmaster David Kim in his scaled-back, period-instrument-style vibrato and trumpeter Caleb Hudson in “The Trumpet Shall Sound.” I’d even say that, general, the Thursday efficiency was predominantly great — a lot a couple of may hope for in such well-trodden repertoire.
No extra performances of Messiah. The Philadelphia Orchestra performs the Muppet Christmas Carol stay to movie Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $59-$89. philorch.org, 215-893-1999.
