Traduction".
Texte paru dans: / Appeared in: |
|||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
Reviewer : This recording of Handel’s brilliant setting of Dryden’s Cecilian ode Alexander’s Feast comes from a live concert at last summer’s Styriarte Festival in Graz, and marks something of a departure for Ensemble Zefiro, known until now (on record at least) mainly for instrumental repertoire, especially involving winds. Sure enough, the orchestra put in a thoroughly impressive turn here. Handel’s score is a colourful one, and every oboe, recorder, bassoon, horn, trumpet, drum, string instrument, theorbo and keyboard makes its mark with flair and expertise. And with good reason; the work is subtitled ‘The Power of Musick’, so there is no room for slacking. Especially noteworthy are the gracefully dancing horns in ‘Bacchus ever fair and young’, the soothing solo cello in ‘Softly sweet in Lydian measures’, the eerie mix of bassoons in lower strings for the middle section representing ghostly wardead in ‘Revenge, Timotheus cries’, and the thunderous timpani-braced ritornellos of ‘Break his bands of sleep asunder’. And as a collective, too, Zefiro perform with a relaxed and confident vitality that contributes significantly to the feel of a celebration of music.
Dryden’s poem shows how, at the revelries following Alexander the Great’s victory over the Persians, the minstrel Timotheus is able by his singing and playing to move the king to contrasting emotions – Bacchic revelry, pride, pity for the enemy, love for his mistress and vengeance for his fallen warriors – a scenario that plays right into Handel’s hands as a master of choral design. There are some terrific choruses, and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir respond to them with just as much enthusiasm as the orchestra, not least in the grandly sculpted dynamics of ‘The many rend the skies with loud applause’. They lack the precision of the orchestra, however; there are some small niggles in tuning and ensemble, and blending could be better.
The solo singers likewise play their part commendably, the pick among them being the calm presence and supple soprano of
Miriam Kutrowatz – the mournful ‘The Prince, unable to conceal his pain’ is beautifully done. Her words are not always the clearest, even in recitative, but that’s not something you would say of Daniel Johannsen, who relishes his vicarious role as puppetmaster, if perhaps too much when pushing his clear and penetrating tenor beyond comfortable limits. Bass Damien Gastl has less to get his teeth into, but does his job well enough. All three make minor English pronunciation slips, mostly undisruptive.
Conductor Alfredo Bernardini’s natural ebullience is surely responsible for this performance’s engaging vigour; a fine oboist himself, he is used to being among his musicians (he plays obbligato recorder in one of the arias here), so one can well imagine they enjoy playing for him. Yet he does not always catch the work’s flow. This is one of the most pragmatically flexible of Handel’s oratorio scores and benefits from a sure grasp of its procession of colours and textures, but here progress is hampered by occasional heaviness or fractionally overlong gaps between movements. The practicalities of live performance may account for these, and given the frequent rustlings from stage and audience it is difficult to know if editing could have got round it. Harry Christophers’s studio recording is marginally more successful in this respect, has smoother choral singing (albeit in a more generous acoustic), and also includes the two concertos Handel performed within the work at the premiere in 1736. That may be enough to make it the library choice, but Bernardini’s is certainly one to revel in. Lindsay Kemp |
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
Cliquez l'un ou l'autre
bouton pour découvrir bien d'autres critiques de CD |
|||||||
