There is much that is right about this recording. It uses an
excellent edition of the work, there is a clear understanding
of period style and in terms of both performance and recording
it is technically satisfactory. However unfortunately I am doubtful
as to whether this will be enough to attract potential purchasers
given the considerable competition.
In reviewing the recent Naxos recording of this work (see
review)
I commented on the vigour of Handel’s invention in “Israel
in Egypt”. Listening to the present recording, whilst I
am still struck by that vigour, I realise now that my view was
to
some degree prompted by the vigour of that performance. It is
not free from fault but it does project the feeling of a live
performance by performers with confidence in the work and the
impact that it can make.
I am sure that if there were no competition the present recording
would be warmly welcomed as filling more than adequately an important
gap, and as giving at least a technically competent version of
one of Handel’s finest works. However any comparisons with
rivals, not only the recent Naxos version with the Aradia Ensemble
under Kevin Mallon but also older recordings by, for instance,
Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Simon Preston, not to mention other
more recent versions, show straight away what is lacking here.
In short, conviction and drama. The tenor recitative starting
the list of plagues near the start of Part Two may not perhaps
be the most important example but it does illustrate what is
wrong. It ends with the words “He turned their waters into
blood”. set to a downward arpeggio with the word “blood” on
an awkward low D. Most tenors nonetheless manage to produce sufficient
emphasis for the crucial significance of the last word to be
clear. The tenor here, however, becomes less and less audible
through the phrase so that all the listener hears is that there
has been a change in the waters without realizing the key importance
of what they have changed to. This is not just a matter of his
German accent which many of the soloists have, and which is of
little importance in itself, especially given the composer’s
own origins, but of a failure to project the inherent drama of
the words.
That one minor example would not in itself be of great significance,
but it is typical of the way in which this performance fails
at points which one had thought were performer-proof. This is
especially the case in Part Two, with its succession of Plague
Choruses which are a gift to choirs with a sense of drama. The
tempi and characterisation here repeatedly miss the mark. Admittedly
Parts One and Three which are much more static in terms of their
character are much more satisfactory; indeed at times are the
equal of any earlier version. Nonetheless the very undramatic
approach to Part Two for me is a fatal flaw.
I am sorry to have to be so negative about a performance and
recording which have clearly been carefully prepared and recorded,
but in the present crowded market of excellent versions of this
masterpiece it cannot be regarded as being seriously competitive.
John Sheppard