Händel - Solomon

Auditorio Nacional, Madrid, Sunday February 26 2023

Conductor: Harry Bicket. Solomon: Ann Hallenberg. Solomon's Queen and First Harlot: Miah Persson. Queen of Sheba: Elena Villalón. Zadok: James Way. A Levite: Brandon Cedel. Second Harlot: Niamh O'Sullivan. The English Concert. The Clarion Choir.

Ann Hallenberg has no engagements in France this year, so although recently back from an expensive trip to Los Angeles, I decided to bite the bullet and go to Madrid for the weekend to hear this Solomon. 'It's only money,' as a late friend used to trill: plaie d'argent n'est pas mortelle, as the French say, though sometimes it can be painful for a while.

Living in France, I'm used to Händel by the likes of Christie, Minkowski, Rousset or Haïm. This was my first live encounter with Harry Bicket's English approach. I suspect he isn't everybody's cup of tea, as by 'HIP' standards, he goes - or at any rate went on Sunday evening - for a big, organ-like orchestral and choral sound, using soloists with relatively full voices - I mean, not the 'voiceless wonders' I've sometimes complained about in 'period' performances of this kind of repertoire. The word that came to my mind at the end, as a striking roar went up from the Madrid crowd, was 'majestic'. Tim Ashley, in the Guardian, reviewing a related (though not identical: it only included excerpts from Solomon) concert in London with the same cast, two days later, puts it better than I could:

'Bicket is a wonderful Handelian and the performances were exemplary in their grace, enthusiasm and elan. Beautifully played, the Fireworks Music swung exuberantly between ceremonial grandeur and elegant refinement.'

(Full Guardian review here.)

Also, though for Solomon Bicket mixed experienced soloists - stars, even - with singers completely new to me, there was no imbalance of the kind I've sometimes come across when Ann Hallenberg was partnered with relative youngsters. All the cast was strong and the 'youngsters', here, were interesting and decidedly promising.

It occurred to me that the Irish mezzo Niamh O'Sullivan and her friends and family must have had a good giggle at her being cast as 'Second Harlot' - a thankless role involving mostly sitting and waiting. Her voice is interestingly deep and dark, a bit plummy: she could perhaps do a little more work on her diction. But she frowned well.

The quickest way (definitely no pun intended) for me to describe James Way's sound would be to evoke the late Robert Tear. Of course he's young, but his voice has some of that force and brassy metal and the darkish undertones. Valiant. Over the next few days, as he's touring with this concert, he might ask Ann Hallenberg for advice on pacing Händel's long runs of semiquavers, as he sometimes seemed close to  running out of breath, and panic (I exaggerate) at not making it risked throwing his tuning out. But hugely intriguing and promising.

Equally intriguing and promising, so it seemed to me, was Elena Villalón as the Queen of Sheba, with a coppery-gold timbre, 'crunchy' as I sometimes say though I've no idea if anyone can follow me, that seemed to match the glamorous, slinky gold lamé dress she'd chosen for the performance (it was funny to spot her in jeans and trainers afterwards*).

Brandon Cedel I knew already, from Hercules, also with Ann Hallenberg, in Karlsruhe last year. He was in absolutely splendid, dark-chocolaty voice on Sunday. All the low notes were there, properly sung and fully audible, which isn't always the case in a world that seems full of baritones and short on basses. 'Handsome sounding,' wrote Ashley, who might well have added 'and looking.'

Miah Persson and Ann Hallenberg are so well-known it hardly seems necessary to write anything about either of them. They sang as you'd expect, one silvery, the other velvety, both with the subtle, intelligent phrasing and understanding of the text you'd expect (bis) from singers of their stature and experience. Ann Hallenberg's fans might, though, be a little disappointed that the work has no fireworks for her - what she herself calls 'yodelling'. Solomon's part doesn't necessarily play to all of her strengths: it is lowish - more alto than mezzo - and relatively reserved. In this oratorio, the tenor gets most of the fun (or the panic).

A word for the chorus. According, again, to Ashley, 'the Clarion Choir once again sounded magnificent.' Yes. Their basic sound is 'Oxbridge', but with the added interest and character of individual voices occasionally 'seeping' through.

Later this month (in March) the programme moves on to San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. I look forward to seeing what America's austere Händel specialists think.

*We may imagine opera singers are richly paid to live a life of luxury, but I came across several of the soloists out in the cold and dark after the concert looking, like me, for somewhere to eat near the auditorium on a Sunday evening. It seemed strange to see the audience comfortably seated and tucking in inside as the singers they'd just been applauding, loaded down with bags of concert clothes, were turned away at the door.