The Sixteen, alongside the Tallis Scholars, are the leaders in Renaissance polyphony. Both venture outside of that area of expertise sometimes. The Tallis Scholars perform some C20th music, for example, but I don't imagine that they do Handel very often. Here, of course, it is more about the soloists, some of who have specialist baroque CV's while others have wider opera repertoire.
Jephtha's story begins with a bargain struck with God that in exchange for victory in battle over the Ammonites, he will sacrifice the first person who comes out of his house to greet him when he returns home. Unfortunately, that turns out to be his only daughter, Iphis, which causes some consternation. But Handel and his librettist alter the Bible story so that a forgiving God says the sacrifice will not be necessary but she spends her life in devotion to God, a perpetual virgin, which is not much use to her betrothed but otherwise deemed a satisfactory solution.
Jephtha was Handel's last oratorio, written with some apparent difficulty with failing eyesight, and is noticeably more subdued than Messiah, without quite so much show and obvious flamboyance but there is still plenty of brio, sumptuous melancholy and glorious set pieces in it.
The soloists are all superb- James Gilchrist in the title role, Sophie Bevan and Grace Davidson, the sopranos and Susan Bickley the mezzo but the first time I heard Robin Blaze, counter-tenor, as Hamor, the suitor, was inevitably when I re-checked the excellent booklet.
Another thing that emerged is what a fine poet the librettist, Thomas Morell, is. Handel and Charles Jennens, author of the Messiah text, perhaps had their differences, as did many with Handel but Jennens had his say, too.
Iphis, resigned to her presumed fate, sings,
Farewell, ye limpid springs and floods,
Ye flow'ry meads and mazy woods;
Farewell, thou busy world, where reign
Short hours of joy and years of pain.
and, happily, the amount of recitative seems to diminish from one disc, or Act, to the next because, however essential to the plot in the theatre, one feels a bit of an idiot listening to too much speil in among the singing on a record at home.
The highlights are the quartet in Act 2 and the quintet as we reach the finale, giving opportunities for the exchange of musical themes between soloists, gentler here perhaps than in Rinaldo but nonetheless a great pleasure.
It is mature Handel, in theme as well as perhaps music, but that is spritely enough for most days and a happy ending is ensured, with Jephtha all the wiser for his unwise bargain with folly.
