Merseyside has a proud, if slightly tenuous contribution to the making of Messiah, as Handel passed through Chester en route to the work’s premiere in Dublin in 1742. Yet with a performance history that stretches back over 150 years, Liverpool’s annual Messiah is one of the longest-established in the country. For all its subsequent popularity, Handel’s cut-and-paste approach to scripture initially aroused controversy over whether a sacred work should be performed in a theatre, or if a non-dramatic oratorio is better suited to a concert hall. Scaling the RLPO down to a slim, Handelian-sized ensemble, baroque specialist Nathalie Stutzmann presented a limpid interpretation that tended towards sensuality rather than spirituality.
Handel’s twin influences of scripture and showbusiness seemed to be embodied in the elfin figure of the young Italian mezzo-soprano Gaia Petrone, who accessorised the unsullied tone of a boy chorister with an outsize belt buckle that Elvis might have rejected as too outrageous for Vegas. If receiving her UK introduction under the baton of Stutzmann – herself one of the most accomplished Handel contraltos of the age – was an intimidating experience, she did well to disguise it.
The rest of the solo lineup was made up of experienced Handelians with hundreds of Messiahs between them. The opalescent tone of soprano Susan Gritton turned her contributions into a string of bejewelled highlights; tenor John Mark Ainsley just about negotiated the near-impossible tessitura of “Thou shalt break them’“; though the veteran bass Brindley Sherratt tended to leap to his feet and berate the audience in the manner of an angry headmaster.
The RLPO choir seemed to be under strict instruction to rein in their vibrato, leaving the pitch a little exposed at times. But Stutzmann’s preference for reduced forces ensured that when the trumpets and drums finally struck up, the Hallelujah chorus justified its status as the only number in the repertoire to come with a mandatory standing ovation.
• This review was amended on 13 January 2015 to correct the reign/rein homophone.
