My first published review, I reckon, was of Messiah, a school production, nearly 40 years ago and appeared in the Gloucester Citizen. The young music afficianado, keen watcher of Face the Music, devoted to Beethoven mainly in those days, is still at it and rarely has been more glad of it than on an evening such as this.
As soon as I saw James Bowman was in town it became top priority to make sure of a ticket. The only sorry part of the story is how I didn't quite think it through and chose to sit on the side where the tenor and bass were (and were tremendous) rather than by the violins and soprano and alto. Otherwise I'd have been only a few feet away from the singer on two of my very favourite CD's, his Couperin and Pergolesi.
I had described Michael Rangeley's conducting as 'succinct' in the 1970's, and Jean Alington leading the violins as 'valiant'. Here, David Price was more understated than that for most of the time and Sophie Barber was impressively lively. Well, you need to be in Handel's most exhilarating passages. But you notice how little there is for the soloists to do from time to time. Andrew King's tenor filled the cathedral with a wonderful tone early on but we didn't hear from him again before half time. Edward Ballard's baroque bass was also hugely to be enjoyed. But if we thought we were having a treat by the interval then, of course, Handel has paced himself and it only gets better.
Messiah is over two hours long but there's never a dull moment and it doesn't seem like it. James Bowman's gentle He was despised is soon followed by the great chorus All we like sheep -and the choir made a glorious sound in the higher reaches throughout; the message soon got round the audience that, yes, we stand up for the Hallelujah chorus which was most invigorating and got its own round of applause before Catherine Bott delivered a further highlight in I know that my redeemer liveth but, having gathered momentum throughout and celebrated with The trumpet shall sound, David Price drove the ensemble to more powerful heights with the finale in Worthy is the Lamb and the Amen.
It is strange, isn't it, that the two greatest musicians were born in the same year and in the same country but seem to be such different characters. Not suffering fools gladly appears to be one thing they had in common but perhaps that's about it. Handel is Bach but more flash, not that Bach lacked any of that, but Handel polished and brightened the thing until it gleamed and sparkled with its own light. This fine performance revealed all of that from the clarity in some excellent string playing, the burnished trumpets and all of the well-organised choir crisp and triumphant.
I was lucky enough to be able to seize the chance of getting an autograph from James Bowman and having the honour of telling him that his Couperin disc is my very favourite. Not all music fans get the opportunity to do that. I can't think of anyone I'd rather have said it to about any other disc. And then on my way back to the bus stop, I picked up a pound coin from the pavement.
It really was quite a night.
