By Nancy Plum
New Jersey Symphony closed out the first half of its 2024-25 Princeton series the week before Christmas with an enduring holiday favorite. George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah is always a crowd-pleaser at this time of year, and the Symphony’s performance this season was an especially unique musical experience. Preparing a work of this scope every year under a different conductor keeps the Symphony players on their toes, with each director reimagining the music to their own taste and scholarly background. Guest conductor Jeannette Sorrell, who led a Friday night presentation in Richardson Auditorium (the concert was repeated the following night) brought Baroque-era expertise, creative musical thinking and her own harpsichord skills to lead the Symphony musicians, four vocal soloists and chorus in a version which captured the audience’s attention.
With close to 50 choruses, arias, and duets and a complete run time of three hours, Messiah has long been subject to excised numbers and abbreviated adaptations for the sake of audience appeal. Handel’s timeless work is a musical arc over three parts, telling the Christmas story and the narrative of the crucifixion and resurrection, together with affirmation of redemption. When conductors adjust the score, the arc and Handel’s overall message cannot help but be affected. Sorrell made most cuts in the second and third parts, while retaining arias which encapsulated the liturgical texts and showcasing popular choruses.
Sorrell was a directorial firecracker from the opening “Sinfonia,” crisply leading the orchestra and creating drama through shifts in dynamics and delicate cadences. Throughout the concert, Sorrell brought out the lower strings as a foundation to the sound, with drawn-out sustained notes to support the contrapuntal activity and attention to precise rhythms and phrase direction. Varied instrumental colors were clear as accompanying passages alternated between soloists cellist Jonathan Spitz and double bassist Ha Young Jung and the full sectional sound. Spitz and Jung also joined harpsichordist Robert Wolinsky and organist Gabe Shuford to create a continuo ensemble accompanying recitatives and more poignant arias.
Most intriguing was Sorrell’s treatment of the opening of Part II, which customarily launches the Passion narrative with the command to “behold the Lamb of God” who was “despised and rejected.” Sorrell began this section with several “crowd” choruses,” followed by the aria “He was despised,” expressively sung by counter-tenor John Holiday. The new placement of this aria allowed the soloist to be part of the crowd scene and emphasized the somber text.
The quartet of vocal soloists for this performance each possessed vast experience on opera and oratorio stages. Singing mostly from memory and unencumbered by scores, soprano Sonya Headlam, counter-tenor Holiday, tenor Ed Lyon, and bass-baritone Kevin Deas brought out the operatic side of Handel’s music, connecting to audience members in all corners of the hall. Headlam sang the trademark “Rejoice greatly” with ease, effortlessly tossing off the extended vocal runs and hitting solid high B-flats. Sorrell left the podium for the harpsichord for Headlam’s convincing singing of “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” elegantly accompanied by violin soloist Eric Wyrick and continuo.
Counter-tenor Holiday showed a great sense of dramatic flair, emphasizing the “refiner’s fire,” aided by orchestral strikes from the lower strings. Tenor Lyon took his time on the ornamented lines of his arias and set the scene well as the first soloist of the oratorio. He was also able to effectively convey the “scorn” and “derision” of later arias in the crucifixion passages. Bass-baritone Deas commanded the stage effectively to declare the Lord’s will and created an ominous atmosphere when proclaiming that “darkness shall cover the earth.” Accompanied by trumpet soloist Anderson Romero, cellist Spitz, and double bassist Jung, Deas joyfully launched Handel’s vision of hope with the reminder that “the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised.”
New Jersey Symphony’s presentation of Messiah included most of the choruses one would expect from the oratorio. Joining the Symphony was the Montclair State University Singers, meticulously prepared by Heather J. Buchanan and singing with clarity and solid command of the choral style. In the Part I “And the glory of the Lord,” Sorrell led the chorus with melodic sweep and emphasis on the word “glory.” In all the choruses, the bass section provided a solid underpinning, while all voices moved lithely through the melismatic runs. In Part II, inventive choreography moved the chorus to surround the orchestra and tenor Lyon to dramatically create a “crowd” scene to deride that “He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him.”
As evidenced by her long leadership and more than 30 recordings with the period instrument ensemble Apollo’s Fire, Sorrell is an innovator, and definitely not afraid to take a new look at traditional musical works. New Jersey Symphony’s interpretation of Messiah unquestionably brought something new to the table, while simultaneously giving the audience the chance to re-listen to an old seasonal friend.
New Jersey Symphony’s next Princeton concert will be on Friday, January 10 at 8 p.m. in Richardson Auditorium. Conducted by Kevin John Edusei, this performance will feature piano soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and works of Ravel, Shin, and Sibelius. Ticket information can be obtained by visiting njsymphony.org.