Not musically knowledgeable, I came to love the Christopher Hogwood rendition of the Messiah thanks to gentle tuition from those better versed. Seeing this clip at Cathcon, I am glad to have recognised its purity and quality:
Emma Kirkby is the Soprano. Conductor is Christopher Hogwood: The Academy of Ancient Music. Sublime!
11 comments:
Just goes to show that youtube is not just about people and their pets doing silly things.
I do not know the recording but I do know that Emma Kirkby is one of the top 6 soprano soloists in the world according to Gramophone Mag so I guess her performance must be superb.
Tastes differ, but I'm not a great fan of Emma Kirby in this aria or the Hogwood Messiah in general. I don't think her voice quite has the power which the aria requires (she is much better in "How beautiful are the feet" and "I know that my redeemer liveth"), and I would prefer to have a counter-tenor or a bass singing it anyway because I think the key (D Minor) fits better with the preceding recitative.
In addition, the Hogwood recording was one of the very earliest period instrument recordings of this work (it dates from 1980), and like many of the "revisionist" baroque recordings that came out at the same period, it displayed the "exaggerated and senseless antiquarianism" that Pius XII (rightly) criticised in Mediator Dei! So you get
the resurrection of alternative versions of various arias that Handel probably composed to satisfy the petulance of his prima donnas and which were subsequently discarded (the Soprano version of this aria is a good example);
odd word emphases in various arias, just because this was (allegedly) in the "original" score, when it is more likely to represent a copyists mistake (listen to David Thomas sing "incorruptible" in "The Trumpet shall sound";
a choir and orchestra which is pared down to the minimum, on the spurious grounds that this is what Handel had for the original performances and which must therefore represent what he wanted. In fact, all the evidence suggests that Handel liked a big sound and would add extra instruments and performers when they were available; and,
a disparaging of all later performance traditions, when subsequent scholarship has shown what Hogwood et al "thought" was "original" baroque practice, represented the tendentious conclusions of flawed scholarship.
Hogwood himself admitted much of this in a recent interview, and said that if he recorded Messiah again, he would pay more deference to what I might (with tongue in cheek!) call the "hermeneutic of continuity", i.e. the fact that Messiah (uniquely) has a continuous performing tradition of nearly 270 years and that later ideas of how to perform the work have just as much validity as earlier ones.
To quote Pius XII again:
"The musical tradition of the early ages is most certainly worthy of all veneration ... ancient usage must not be esteemed more suitable and proper, either in its own right or in its significance for later times and new situations, on the simple ground that it carries the savor and aroma of antiquity. The more recent performance traditions likewise deserve reverence and respect". (Mediator Dei n61, mutatis mutandis).
That said, there are good period instrument performances out there (by Trevor Pinnock, whose soloists are much better e.g. John Tomlinson, who was singing Wagner at Bayreuth when the recording was made); but I do think that the modern instrument performances are (on the whole) better than the period instrument ones in the sense that they capture the spirit of the music better. Try either Karl Richter, Otto Klemperer or Malcolm Sargeant to see what I mean). In the end, "Musically correct" interpretations, such as Hogwood's, can be seen as the cultural equivalent of coffee table kum-by-ya liturgies and are equally unsatisfying.
This is also my favourite version, Father. I believe the great debate was over having a soprano sing these pieces - but Hogwood's point was that Handel wrote it for a castrati....not too many available these days.
That is from the videotape produced; I think the CD recording is even better. Either way, the Hogwood version is my favorite recording.
It's also the favourite version of Cappadocian Sister.
This shows Emma quite a many years ago. Nowadays, unfortunately, her singing is not what it used to be.. (I heard her two or three years ago -not so very convincing)
But I have to admit, her singing in this video-clip was extremely precise and pure.
The tempo was fast, which made me think of this recording maybe done in the 80's..? Nowadays, the "HIP" (historically oriented performance) tempi no longer are so extreme.
Thanks for the clip, many greetings from Finland!
I have always liked Emma Kirkby's singing. She has such a pure voice.
As a child I simply could not stand wobbly voices. My mother told me that when I was about three years old I ran to where she was to get her to turn off the radio because a lady with a very wobbly voice was singing at the time. My words were "Mummy, mummy, it's that Jessie woman."
Some of you ancients may remember Jessie Matthews reading "Mrs Dale's Diary". Well, she also sang and I hated her voice.
Emma Kirkby has just the kind of voice that I delight in.
JARay
Auricularius - many thanks indeed for your informative comment.
I too am interested in some of the comments by Auricularius.
Somehow, I'll bet that he has never heard the version which I possess on DVD.
It was made by The Australian Broadcasting Commission in 2002 for a TV broadcast and is(was) available on DVD. The conductor is Anthony Walker and he uses a counter-tenor called Christopher Field for this aria, but I'm not a great fan of counter-tenors in general except for the outstanding Andreas Scholl. The bass is one of the finest that there is ANYWHERE. His name is Teddy Tahu Rhodes and comes from New Zealand. The soprano is one of our local girls from Western Australia and I have twice sung in the chorus (tenor) with her here. Her name is Sara Macliver.
The recording was made in the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel at Manly, Sydney. The choir is Cantellation and orchestra is The Orchestra of the Antipodes.
If you can get hold of a copy DO!
It may even be distributed by the BBC. Certainly the ABC distribute a great deal of BBC material.
One final note. I have a copy of a CD with the late Arlene Auger singing "I Know that my Redeemer liveth" under the baton of Trevor Pinnock and I don't think that I have ever heard it bettered anywhere.
My experience of The Messiah is that I have sung it many times in the chorus with several choirs.
JARay
JARay
No I don't have the Australian version that you mention, but as I don't have a television or a DVD player, it wouldn't be any use to me:)
I agree that the Pinnock recording is among the best period instrument recordings, but I think Paul McCreesh's version is the only one that captures the sheer religious fervour of Messiah in the way that e.g. Malcolm Sargeant used to. This is important. It is not always realised that Messiah is an avowedly didactic work, the text of which is designed to assert the divinity of Christ and his role as Redeemer, against the 18th century deists who denied it.
The Hogwood Messiah (or the Hogwood/Bugnini version as I prefer to call it) is so intent on its muscial "resourcement", that it more or less ignores the religious element in the work at all. It is not alone in this respect and it is greatly encouraging that those like McCreesh who are arguing for "mutual enrichment" and a "reform of the reform" in the approach to baroque performance are now calling the Hogwood/Bugnini approach into question.
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