Georg Friedrich HÄNDEL (1685-1759)
Dettinger Te Deum (arr. Mendelssohn) HWV 283 1743/1831 [35:45] *
Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
The Storm, Hob XXIVa:8 1792 [9:14] **
Luigi CHERUBINI (1760-1842)
Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn 1805 [17:23] ***
Dominique Labelle (soprano)***; Colin Ainsworth (tenor) ***; Thomas Cooley
(tenor) ***; William Berger (bass) *; NDR Chor *, **, ***; Festspiel Orchester
Göttingen/Nicholas McGegan
rec. 5-6 June 2009, Galerie Hannover-Herrenhausen, Germany. DDD
CARUS 83.358 [63:52]
This CD contains three loosely connected works.
First, Mendelssohn's version of one of Handel's most striking - not to say
spectacular - settings of the Te Deum: that composed during the Austrian
War of Succession and first performed in 1743. Because it reflected the victory
of the allies (including England: at Dettingen am Main), the Dettinger
Te Deum quickly became established as a high-powered ceremonial
piece; and later as a staple of the English choral tradition. Mendelssohn's
version added parts for flute, clarinet and horn; it was first performed almost
a century later, in 1831.
In fact, Mendelssohn took up this work not on one of his journeys to Britain,
but while in Berlin. The thicker texture applied by the later composer perhaps
distils some of the impact that we're used to in this work. Some of its allusion
to glory and splendour are maybe lost. But the level of playing and singing
merit close attention nevertheless: it never descends to the pedestrian. McGegan,
Wiliam Berger and the Festspiel Orchester of Göttingen with the NDR Chor make
out a convincing case for Mendelssohn's arrangement.
Haydn, on the other hand, was commissioned by Solomon in London in the early
1790s to set part of an English text, 'To My Candle' by John Walcot (1738-1819),
as The Storm. Typical of the contemporary interest in the subliminal
aspects of nature, this piece is what might be called a tone poem now. Haydn
described it as a 'Madrigal': it does have choral counterpoint. The Storm
depicts the violence of a nocturnal tempest with obvious parallels in
human emotions. There is only one other recording of The Storm in the
catalogue, with the Haydn Society Chorus and Orchestra of the Golden Age under
Denis McCaldin on Meridian (84393). Again, McGegan's is an unaffected, somewhat
detached, yet not over-plain account utterly consistent with the idiom in
which Haydn was working.
Lastly, this CD contains a homage to Haydn by his near contemporary, Cherubini.
The Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn was written in 1805 in response
to a false report that Haydn had died(!). Set aside, it soon became necessary
to perform it - in 1810, a few months after the elder composer's death. A
lugubrious work with low strings, horns, it's also rhetorical and also uses
orchestral colour to achieve much of its impact. At the same time Cherubini's
vocal part writing looks back to some of the key principles of Renaissance
polyphony, which he was studying at the time he wrote Chant sur la mort
de Joseph Haydn. Again, there is only one other recording of this work
- by the Cappella Coloniensis and soloists with Gabriele Ferro on Phoenix
Edition (175).
Like those of the other works on this welcome CD, McGegan's account of the
Cherubini is warm, clean and persuasive. The instrumental introduction [tr.15],
for example, is particularly successful … dour, rich and pointed, it really
conveys how musicians must have felt on hearing of Haydn's death. Neither
obsequious nor dragging, it presents a trenchant set of musical ideas which
are at once a tribute to Haydn in their sparse use of orchestral colour; and
at the same time an original and sensitive miniature cantata in its own right.
As with these forces' performance of The Storm, the drama works
by being understated. There is nothing rhetorical. Yet the crescendi
and huge contrasts in dynamics are used to good effect. The soloists' delivery
might strike some as a little mannered for the beginning of the C19th. But
they make up for this in clarity and restraint.
Mark Sealey