The writing is on the wall as far as full-time ermployment is concerned, for me - my decision, eventually one has seen enough - and so treats like this might be less taken for granted and more carefully chosen. That would be a shame because I wouldn't have wanted to miss this.
Of course, Handel is solid banker material and nothing can possibly go wrong but it is still something of a privilege to have been of the same species and, early enough to get front row seats, be quite so close to a counter-tenor singing and the glories of trumpets that Georg Frederick was so adept at sprinkling over his most thrilling passages.
The Portsmouth Choral Union make a fine sound but I'm even more of an admirer of Southern Pro Musica, not all of who are required for this score but the principal cello here earned his daily bread, relied upon to keep the momentum spritely, and bass lines are always a less flamboyant delight in baroque repertoire.
Four soloists, coupled into duets as the piece develops, were expressive and hugely enjoyable. Not going to the expense of a programme, I can't credit them by name but without the story in front of me, it was still very clear when the words appeared portentously on the wall. In oratorios if not in opera, Handel's texts were in English, which was very considerate of him.
Time flies when one is having such a good time and 45 minutes followed by a second half of an hour seemed telescoped into nothing like that. One rousing chorus with trumpets and drums appeared to be leading to a big finale but then, no, we went back and spent another quarter of an hour building to another and, if anything, came to a less protracted climax than it might have. It was Beethoven who started to signal the end was coming rather earlier than he needed to.
Tremendous stuff, a marvellous tonic in difficult times. Carolyn Sampson had been awarded my best concert of the year for her appearance at the Wigmore but if nobody would probably suggest there was anybody of quite her calibre among these singers, the dazzling fabric and sheen of a Handel oratorio is always an occasion and Carolyn can have the best CD prize while PCU, Southern Pro Musica with David Gostick, who had to politely request that a particularly ignorant intruder desist from filming at close range (hard to credit), can be given no higher praise than this was the best musical event I saw this year.
