Surprisingly, this was the first full performance of
this work at the Proms, only individual numbers such as the well – known
‘Let the Bright Seraphim’ having been heard in past years. Handel’s
setting of Milton’s great poem ‘Samson Agonistes’ was written just after
‘Messiah’ and was as popular as that work in its time, but its star
has since waned compared to the brightness of some of the composer’s
other works, and one can see why. ‘Samson’ is an exciting story, but
the narrative has its longeurs, and vocally it is exceptionally demanding.
This performance did not quite make the case for its being heard as
often as, say, ‘Jephtha,’ but it did give intense pleasure for much
of the long evening.
Samson is one of the most demanding of Handel’s heroic
roles, and it needs singing of great spiritedness, agility, tenderness
and confident projection. Tom Randle certainly gave us some of these;
he is not the world’s greatest Handel tenor, by any means – his tone
is rather rough at times, his passagework is not always neatly articulated,
and he sometimes sings so quietly that you simply cannot hear him, but
he makes up for these with his arresting stage presence, his total commitment
to the music and drama of the work, and his forceful presentation of
the character throughout all the moods of the piece, from the aching
sadness of ‘Total eclipse! No sun, no moon,’ to the confidence of ‘Let
but that spirit.’ His ‘Why does the God of Israel sleep?’ was characteristic
of his performance in that he compensated for the lack of freedom at
the top of his voice with his sense of heroism and strength.
John Tomlinson’s Harapha was an equally powerful characterization,
so much so that he looked as if he might be about to take off during
‘Presuming Slave,’ and his wonderfully warm, beautifully focused bass
was a joy to hear in this music. It was sad that Michael George was
not permitted any repeats in ‘How willing my paternal love,’ since he
sang this wonderful aria with all the style, power and tenderness which
we have come to expect from him. Catherine Wyn- Rogers was a convincing,
highly dramatic Micah, even though there were times when her tone was
not as full as it generally is, and Lisa Milne’s Dalila was creamily
sung and alluringly portrayed. I was less struck with Natasha Marsh’s
Philistine / Israelite Woman; she is making her Proms debut and is young,
but her voice seems to me, at least on this showing, rather too small
and lacking in individuality of timbre.
Harry Christophers and The Sixteen (actually twenty
five, on this occasion) gave highly charged, sharply defined renditions
of the choruses, especially in ‘Awake the trumpet’s lofty sound’ (superb
playing from Robert Farley and Christopher Pigram) and the difficult
‘Hear us, our god’ where the perfect balance was struck between dramatic
import and clarity of sound. The Symphony of Harmony and Invention showed
that you don’t need to be the Concertgebouw in order to fill the Albert
Hall with sound; the continuo was consistently fluent and beautifully
shaped, the strings produced angular or melting sounds as needed, and
the woodwind, particularly the bassoons, were a joy throughout, in contrast
to the rather tentative experience one sometimes encounters with ‘period’
instruments in this repertoire. The work was enthusiastically received
by a house that was well filled for a not – especially well loved piece:
next year, ‘Jephtha’ or at least ‘Joshua,’ please.
Melanie Eskenazi
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