By
Bryce Christensen
Writing about Handel’s Messiah, music critic Leonard
Turnevicius asserted, “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a performance of
the work.” Fortunately, the hundreds
gathered in Cedar City’s Heritage Center on the evenings of December 10th
and 11th joyfully recognized that once again Christmas was Christmas as they thrilled to the
magnificent strains of Handel’s masterpiece, performed for the 77th
time in Cedar City. Bringing together
the vocal and instrumental talents of the Chorale and Orchestra of Southern
Utah, this year’s rendition ratified the realty of the holiday for all who
shared in it.
Welcoming
the audience, Orchestra President Harold Shirley promised a performance
“approaching perfection,” a performance fully justifying the inclusion he noted
of a printed program for the concert in the time capsule incorporated into the
cornerstone of the newly dedicated Latter-day Saint Temple on Cedar City’s
Leigh Hill. The performances were indeed
so marvelous that listeners might have forgiven Shirley for dropping the word
“approaching” in characterizing them.
The
orchestra delivered nearly perfect sublimity in their offering of this
Christmas-making music, that sublimity transporting the audience from the first
majestic strains of the opening Overture.
Director Xun Sun conducted with such inspiring musical passion that
listeners might well have supposed that in witnessing his ecstatic movements,
they were seeing a modern David dancing once again before the sacred Ark of the
Covenant. In his opening remarks,
Shirley identified Sun as a source of the orchestra’s energy. And in these performances, that boundless source
never once subsided, nor did the instrumentalists under Sun’s baton ever waver
in delivering all that he asked of them.
The orchestra’s stirring musical instrumental mastery was, of course,
most fully in the spotlight during the dignified opening Overture and the
reflective Pastoral Symphony midway through Part I of the concert. But the orchestra sustained that same
impressive mastery while accompanying the Chorale’s vocal artists.
The outpouring from these
approximately 140 vocal artists swelled into a mighty river of celebratory
sound in the irresistible choruses of this wonderful work. Swept along by the currents of that river,
listeners might well have recalled the aptness of the original 1742 review in
the Dublin Review praising Handel’s
work as a distillation of “The Sublime, the
Grand, and the Tender, adapted to the most elevated, majestick and moving
Words, conspired to transport and charm the ravished Heart and Ear." Superlatives fail to describe the way the
Chorale and Orchestra together gave Handel’s “majestick and moving Words” both
the polish and precision earned through long hours of practice and the
unmistakable authenticity of emotions born in that very moment.
In the
heart-piercing pathos of “Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs,” the exultant joy of
“Unto Us a Child Is Born,” the laudatory exclamations of “Glory to God,” and
the rapt reverence of “Worthy is the Lamb That Was Slain,” the Chorale and
Orchestra gave easily recognized numbers a fresh brilliance. And in bracing “Let Us Break Their Bonds
Asunder,” singers and instrumentalists successfully ventured into a part of the
oratorio often omitted from abridged performances of Handel’s great work.
The
performance of the Chorale so amazed listeners that when they rose to their
feet for the “Hallelujah!” Chorus, they did so with an alacrity suggestive of
more than venerable tradition.
Complementing
the excellence of the entire Chorale in performing the choruses was the
praiseworthy merit of the solos rendered by the concerts’ eleven soloists, all
deserving of favorable mention.
Alto
Krysten Tomlinson delivered the recitative “Behold! A Virgin Shall Conceive” in
the tones a celestial dulcimer before seamlessly segueing the more vigorous
measures of “O Thou That Tellest.”
Soprano
Leslie Perkins demonstrated comparable interpretive versatility in singing
“There Were Shepherds Abiding in the Field,” “And the Angel Said Unto Them,”
and “And Suddenly There Was With The Angel,” her voice so luminous in the final
number that listeners could easily have supposed that Perkins herself qualified
for inclusion in the heavenly host announcing glad tidings to the astonished
shepherds.
In notes
of transcendent rapture, soprano Terri Metcalf-Peterson riveted listeners with
“Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Zion!”
In
deftly modulated measures Alto Brook Allredge captured the emotional import of
her scriptural texts in singing “Then Shall the Eyes of the Blind Be Opened”
and “He Shall Feed His Flock Like a Shepherd,” listeners sharing fully in the
wonder of the first, the comfort of the second.
Soprano
Kristina Maggio gave compelling voice in “Come Unto Me” to the divine love that
pleads with erring mortals, urging them to return to the supernal source of
forgiveness and healing.
Lambent
with gratitude, soprano Jaclyn Thomas rendered the air “How Beautiful Are the
Feet” with unforgettable fervor.
And with
a voice luminous with conviction, soprano Emily Diamond illuminated the
priceless linkage between Christmas and Easter in her rendition of “I Know That
My Redeemer Liveth.”
Among
the male vocal soloists, Ethan McBride left a lasting impression as a young
talent already poised and fully in command of his exceptional artistic
power. In performing the recitative
“Comfort Ye My People” and the air “Every Valley Shall Be Exalted,” McBride dazzled
the audience with a voice at once strong and supple, delivering even the most
challenging passages with effortless grace.
Likewise
astounding as a young male vocalist was baritone Alex Byers, who amazed
listeners with his masterful rendering of “Thus Saith the Lord,” “But Who May
Abide the Day of His Coming?” and “Why Do the Nations so Furiously Rage
Together?” Delivering prophetic
authority in the first, a probingly introspection in the second, and perplexed wonderment
in the third, Byers left no doubt as to his artistic gifts.
Manifesting
the confidence of a seasoned vocal veteran, tenor Shane Pierce invited
listeners into the circle of light cast by his vocal lamp as he visited
empyreal regions in “He that Dwelleth in Heaven” and galvanized those listeners
with the rigor of “Thou Shalt Break Them.”
Another
experienced and mature performer, bass Richard Waldron plumbed the depths of a
redemptive miracle in “Behold, I Tell You a Mystery,” his voice of forged steel
plunging into the very shadow of death, before emerging in the dawning of
Resurrection. And in “The Trumpet Shall
Sound,” Waldron sharpened his voice to a soul-piercing point, a lance that
pierced unbelief with testimony of divine truth. Augmenting the overwhelming force of this
penultimate number, trumpeter Richard McMaster made his virtuosity with his brass
instrument an arresting complement to Waldron’s skill with his voice.
Chorale
director Jackie Riddle-Jackson deserves high praise for preparing the singers
under her direction for such an outstanding performance. As the relative numbers of female and male
singers in the Chorale as a whole and among the soloists made evident, finding
talented male vocalists can prove more challenging than finding talented female
vocalists. But Riddle-Jackson is meeting
this challenge, with the presence among the male soloists of two quite young luminaries
indicating that she is doing so in ways that promise similarly favorable
experiences for Messiah-lovers in the
years ahead.
And
though bankers and insurance brokers may not take to the stage to sing, the
State Bank of Southern Utah and the Leavitt Group merit the gratitude of all
who attended this admission-free concert courtesy of these sponsors’
generosity. These are sponsors who smash
the negative stereotype of Scrooge-like business executives: these are
community benefactors using their resources to allow all to experience music
that truly does make Christmas Christmas.
