The Little Orchestra promised a different take on Handel’s
masterpiece and they didn’t disappoint, with conductor/compere Nicholas Little not
only deconstructing the many working parts of this mighty, mystical engine but
also explaining the story behind the piece itself.
The Messiah has a
special significance as it was one of my mother’s favourites and she’d watch it
every year played by her brother’s old band, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Needless
to say I didn’t make it past the second bar of the overture without welling up –
this is powerful, resonant music with huge dynamics and emotional intelligence:
almost unimaginable creative time travel from a composer way ahead of his
century.
For all of Charles Jennens’ words, it’s the music that
really moves you and Handel is so fluent in expressing the emotional narrative
with a directness that belies the uncanny craft he deploys. It’s music that is
positively cinematic, conjuring a response through power and subtlety.
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| Nicholas Little, Past Production Image, The Little Orchestra (by Annabelle Staff) |
Mr Little’s orchestra is far from small, there were 17
singers, two actors for the spoken parts and two dozen players all bringing the
noise to this 200-year old epic. The Porchester Hall had been decked out with a
twisting cloud-like installation that divided the room between the performance
area and a cocktail bar. The mixologist who served us had over 500 cocktails in
his head whilst opera singers kept the music flowing after the main event had
finished; this was a well thought out and richly rewarding cultural experience.
The LO had previously played part one at the Hall last Christmas
and so it was the power of the choir that did for me as they sang Behold the Lamb of God at the beginning of
part two. The choir was arranged chromatically from sopranos to bass, almost
like a human pianoforte and with four excellent soloists performing the composers’
mix of leading line and chorus to perfection.
In between each segment of “songs” Nicholas would explain
the background to the meaning and how contemporary audiences would have
responded. He also gave context to the work, explaining that it was basically
propaganda for English Protestantism with Jennens quoting liberally from the
King James bible at a time when Catholicism had been firmly dislodged among the
ruling elites. Not unlike our current debate on Europe, the split in
Christianity had preoccupied the country
for a long time and now the battle had been won, it needed to establish its own
legend.
This was also the time of The Grand Tour when noblemen would
travel Europe in their early years to experience the culture and gain enlightenment
– imagine that! Whilst many spent far too much time behaving badly, enough
found their way to Italy to be impressed with the emerging forms of opera. The German-born
Handel had travelled extensively himself and knew how to compose in this style,
he also developed “English oratorio…” a form all of his own making involving a
mix of spoken word, grandiose orchestrations and thematic collections of “songs”.
Jennens’s libretto may have been influenced by the suicide
of his brother who lost his faith studying at Oxford and took his own life. As
with many in a time of fragile mortality, the writer looked to the life beyond
for comfort.
His script for Messiah therefore focused on the divine resurrection
and the ultimate defeat of death… precisely what people wanted to hear, not
just from a human point of view but also from the perspective of their religion;
Protestants were the new “chosen people” and the English were on the right side
of immortality as well as history.
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| The bands-eye view |
Ithankyou Rating: ***** An evening rich in discovery and
emotion, Little managing skilfully to inform and explain without deadening the
impact of the music.
Catch The Little Orchestra if you can – details are on their website.
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| There was an intriguing display in the bar area... all connected to the scriptures? |
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