Worthy Was This Messiah!
Lindsay Perigo
"Handel has for me an entirely fourth-rate significance, and he is not even entertaining."
Doubtless the throngs of people of all ages who packed the Michael Fowler Centre on Saturday night for the annual recycling of The Messiah would beg to differ with the mighty Tchaikovsky's brutal appraisal above. Even if Baroque is not one's thing (as it wasn't Peter Ilyich's), and even if it's true that the bulk of Handel's prodigious output languishes unplayed and unsung, of The Messiah's capacity to uplift and entertain—over a stretch of time that is a supreme challenge to contemporary attention spans—there can be no doubt.
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Orpheus Choir of Wellington were in super shape for this outing. Conductor Brett Weymark was admirably relentless in his energy and engagement. Players were focused and crisp, the trumpeting of Michael Kirgan and his colleagues being a stand-out. The Orpheus Choir were polished, nimble and expansive—the crescendo of applause for their regular conductor Brent Stewart when he took his bow was extremely well deserved. The four vocal soloists—with the borderline exception of soprano Celeste Lazarenko—were unfortunately not quite up to the stellar standards set by the choir and orchestra, the lower register of the mezzo in particular being conspicuously humble.
Against the backdrop of current events, to observe 2000 people on their feet for the entirety of the Hallelujah Chorus, in accordance with tradition, was timely reassurance that clean delight, melody and a sense of the sacred have not yet disappeared from the face of the earth; Western Civilisation suddenly seemed a little safer. As dubious as the story may be that King George II started this tradition (was he even there?!), it's something that one would like to be true—and there's a great deal of edification to be had from behaving as though it were!
The orchestra's Chief Executive, Christopher Blake, in his programme notes, called The Messiah"life-affirming." Amen (so to speak)! For the NZSO, a triumphal conclusion to a momentous year. May 2018 be equally stupendous.