Your
Tuneful Voice: Handel Oratorio Arias
Iestyn
Davies, countertenor
Carolyn Sampson, soprano
Carolyn Sampson, soprano
The
King’s Consort, Robert King
Vivat
105 [67:23]
The
latest release on Robert King’s Vivat label is a collection of arias from
Handel’s oratorios sung by countertenor Iestyn Davies. The project is a great
idea for many reasons, not least of which are the music’s relative
underexposure and its undeniable quality. Davies has the ideal voice for
Handel, and the King’s Consort gives him colourful but sensitive support
throughout. Add to that excellent recorded sound and elegant packaging, and the
result is a very attractive album indeed.
Davies’
tone is both warm and pure, attributes rarely associated with countertenor
voices. His diction is excellent, allowing every word to come through clearly
(though they are all in the liner too if you miss any). He tends toward a very
slight vibrato at the end of held notes, but it’s a tasteful device, whatever
its historical veracity. Despite his always smooth legato, Davies clearly
defines every note, his tuning always spot on, and his choice of attack always
appropriate. Handel occasionally sets him up in duets with woodwind soloists,
and the combination of tone colours is always ideal, differentiated enough for
clarity, but also similar enough to allow the ensemble to cohere. Similarly,
the soprano Carolyn Sampson duets with Davies in two numbers, and again the
combination of timbres, and the balance between the voices, is finely judged.
A
detailed orchestra list is included, even stating the makers of all the
instruments used. If this represents the permanent constitution of the
orchestra, then the King’s Consort is approaching All-Star-Cast status. Just to
give a few of the big names here, the leader is Kati Debretzeni, the seconds
are led by Matthew Truscott, and the trumpets and horns are led respectively by
Crispian Steele-Perkins and Anneke Scott. Yet, for all these world-class
performers in the ensemble, there is never any danger of Davies losing the
limelight. Even the brass section gives him the space he needs, although there
are plenty of orchestral expositions and interludes in which the instrumental
soloists can shine.
Robert
King presents Handel’s oratorio music as warm and euphonious. Despite the lack
of vibrato, the string section always has a round and highly unified sound.
Recorders are used instead of flutes, which may or may not be appropriate to
the era, but also increases the tonal warmth and homogeneity. In fact, historical
verisimilitude is clearly a major concern here. The liner note, by Donald
Burrows, conjectures about the possibility that male falsettists would have
performed in Handel’s oratorios, although he concedes that there is no direct
evidence they did. Less edifying is the claim in the booklet that the King’s
Consort perform “on authentic instruments.” Without digressing too much about
just how meaningless those words are, it is a great shame that an ensemble that
is clearly a world leader in the field chooses to describe its activities in
terms that have been discredited since at least the 1980s.
That
aside, this is a very satisfying listen. A case could certainly be made for
performing this repertoire in a more angular style, making the drama in many of
the lyrics a bit more explicit. But King and Davies demonstrate that Handel’s
music doesn’t need that kind of help. And even if they lay off the histrionics,
they still provide plenty of musical variety to keep the listener’s interest.
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