By Alan G. Artner, Chicago Tribune
April 17, 2011
Jane Glover conducted her first Chicago performance of George Frideric Handel's “Messiah” Friday night with Music of the Baroque's orchestra and chorus. Listeners at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance heard a fresh, unforced account that proved a highlight of MOB's 40th anniversary season.
Anyone with bias toward period instruments could only admire the small ensemble's historically informed sound, which swept away memories of the bad old days that wrapped "Messiah" in a Victorian mantle. Players on contemporary instruments achieved lean, vibrato-less tone not only secure but beautiful and expressive.
This meant emphasis was easily where it should be: on the words. Here, again, the chorus of 27 made one question how we ever accepted the aural fuzz that clouded and softened enunciation of larger forces. Now, at last, every syllable was clear without exaggeration, having achieved a natural balance with the orchestra even when music was at its loudest and grandest.
Tempos seemed carefully determined by the meaning of the words. It was not Glover's way to insist on uniformly rapid speeds, as is often the case among baroque specialists. Where Handel marked a movement "allegro moderato," you heard the moderation and, in fact, that quality was present throughout. Still, responsiveness to the text also gave flexibility that showed dramatically in a stirring unmarked slowing in the final number.
Of particular appeal was the direct expression of the soloists. Except for two tiny lapses by the sweet and beguiling soprano Elizabeth Futral, all kept away from "operatic" emoting. Even tenor John McVeigh's "Thou shalt break them" relied less on fire than the thrust of words lucidly delivered. Proportions of the whole were honored rather than the underlining of drama in individual mosaics.
Some of the most inward singing came from mezzo-soprano Jennifer Rivera, who stepped in late for Catherine Wyn-Rogers. And baritone Christopheren Nomura caught the forceful gravitas of "The trumpet shall sound," which was persuasively kindled by principal trumpet Barbara Butler.
