Many of you in Michigan may have been beneficiaries (or victims depending on your viewpoint) of my personal zeal to take large groups of friends to see the performance of Handel's Msia (ha ha that's a bit of a strange code one- I just made it up). :D If you've come with us one of the past, I don't know, 5 years, then it's no surprise to you to know that we've been keeping an eye out for a performance of it here in Cambridge. Cambridge, as you may imagine, is home to about a million fabulous orchestras, ensembles, etc etc due to the university. If you love ancient music, this is the place to be. I love baroque music, especially anything with a harpsichord, although organ pieces come in a good second. Particularly if they're being performed at Kings College Chapel. But I digress.
We heard through a co-worker of G's that tonight was a performance of Msia at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, featuring the Academy of Ancient Music. How much more perfect could it get? So we managed to get some tickets, I took the bus down and brought G down some nicer clothes, and off we went. They were having this really cool thing at 6pm where you could come and talk with the conductor, Richard Egarr, so we went, and you know there weren't even 30 people there! More like 20! It was awesome- he talked about his background a bit, and how he'd been out of the Msia performance loop so he was hoping to bring a fresh take to it, and even how some parts of the choir bits hadn't been rehearsed because the choirs tend to think they have Msia down because they perform it so often especially in December. He seemed like a great guy- totally down to earth, but very knowledgeable in his field. What he didn't tell us is that he is a famous keyboardist (meaning instruments with keys like piano and harpsichord, and I think organ) who was not only conducting but also playing harpsichord himself during the performance!
The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) has about 17 orchestra members, and 20 choir members. They use instruments which are appropriate for the time, and are a size that is appropriate for the time as well. Msia was written in 1742 (at least that was the first performance of it) and it was first performed in Dublin. Small orchestras were the thing then. I've never been to any performance except the one at Hill, which I absolutely love, and I have to say that I was spoiled by the accoustics there. :)
About the performance- it really did have a freshness that I had never heard before. Because of the small numbers I could clearly hear all of the harmonies, especially in the choir. The choir voices were all incredible- beautiful and clear. And the conductor had an amazing level of control over the orchestra- they seemed so much more responsive than I've seen other orchestras. He did occasionally look funny using his head to conduct, or one hand conducting while the other hand was playing! It was amazing. :) As for the soloists...I'm a bit picky about solo voices I have to say- not everyone's style or type of voice sounds beautiful to me. Many soloists seem mediocre, and quite a few sound downright not good to me. Msia is particularly telling on voice quality because the range that each person has to sing is wider than in a lot of pieces. Because of that you frequently get bass soloists who sound bad in the absolute lowest part of their range, and have to sing there. Same for altos. Frequently tenor soloists in Msia sound what I'd call cloudy in their lower range, and unfortunately you frequently get sopranos with ugly sounding vibratto in their upper range. All that to say that the soprano had a very nice clear bell like tone, the poor alto didn't sound good in the lower range, the tenor didn't have any volume, and the bass sounded good throughout his entire range. I often wonder why Handel wrote a piece with such a wide range for each voice that it seems so difficult to sing it well. :) The instruments were cool too- they had a baroque trumpet which was cool, and flutes, which were made out of wood. The harpsichord was really cool.
Beyond all of the performance issues though, I wouldn't recommend going to a classical concert at the Corn Exchange. In fact, I don't think I will go there again unless I can sit very close to the stage. The Corn Exchange was built for corn trading, but quickly began to be used for concerts and such. You can see the history at http://cambridge-live-cornex.runtime-collective.com/ccm/cornex/pages/virtualtour/history-of-the-cambridge-corn-exchange.en
But- but- but- but- the Corn Exchange simply is not well suited to classical music because there is a huge black stage thing hanging directly above the stage, which as you might guess, blocks the sound from reaching the ears of the audience. Being thoroughly spoiled by Hill Auditorium (where you really can sit basically anywhere and hear perfectly) I was shocked at the flat sound- the poor tenor was almost unhearable for about half of his solo pieces, as was the alto. At Hill my favorite place to sit is in the Balcony (still called the Second Balcony for many of us) on the right hand side, right at the edge of the balcony. The sound there is amazing- it just floats to your ears....Anyway if any of you went to Msia at Hill let me know how it went. :) We're hoping to go to some more performances by the AAM- the rest of them are in a different (and I've heard much better) venue. :)
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