Program Notes for Stockton Symphony Reunions Series: Messiah

Saturday | December 4, 2021 | 7:00 pm
Atherton Auditorium

Stockton Symphony
Peter Jaffe, conductor

Liisa Dávila, soprano
Monica Danilov, mezzo-soprano
Daniel Ebbers, tenor
Ralph Cato, baritone

Stockton Chorale, Bruce Southard, director

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Concert sponsors:
St. Joseph’s Medical Center – Dignity Health
Douglas and Cheryl Hunt

Guest artist sponsors:
Joe and Rita Sublett
Robert and Marlene Hnath

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Program Notes by Jane Vial Jaffe

Messiah
George Frideric Handel
Born in Halle, Germany, February 23, 1685; died in London, April 14, 1759

No one could have predicted that Messiah would become the most widely performed oratorio of all time with performances occurring every Christmas season across the English-speaking world. Yet circumstances converged that in hindsight offer some explanation of the phenomenon. At their center was a consummate composer who in 1741 had come to a financial dead end, but who had creativity to spare. Italian opera, which Handel had produced for over thirty years in London, could no longer draw the aristocratic crowds necessary to sustain the enterprise. In February of that year Handel gave his last Italian opera performance in London and proposed to do “nothing” the following season. That spring he received a masterful unsolicited libretto by wealthy, cultured country squire Charles Jennens, who had written the librettos for Saul, L’Allegro, and possibly Israel in Egypt. Jennens had based his libretto on passages from the 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible, supplemented with texts from the Book of Common Prayer. The librettist wrote to a friend on July 10, 1741:

Handel says he will do nothing next Winter, but I hope I shall perswade him to set another Scripture Collection I have made for him, & perform it for his own benefit in Passion Week. I hope he will lay out his whole Genius & Skill upon it, that the Composition may excell all his former Compositions, as the Subject excells every other Subject. The Subject is Messiah.

Handel, whose usual practice was to compose during the summer months for the following season, began working at breakneck speed, setting the entire three-part oratorio between August 22 and September 14. Was the oratorio actually written on pure speculation, to be trotted out when a suitable occasion arose? The jury is still out on whether Handel intended Messiah for a London performance during Lent the following spring, or whether he wrote it with a performance in Dublin in mind.

Whatever the case, Handel was invited to spend the 1741–42 season in Ireland. Arriving in mid-November, he gave two series of six subscription concerts each at the new Great Music Hall in Fishamble Street, then announced a charity matinee concert of his “new grand sacred Oratorio” for Monday April 12, 1742 (the actual performance took place April 13), to benefit “Prisoners in several Gaols,” a hospital, and an infirmary. Ladies were requested to “come without Hoops” and gentlemen to “come without their Swords” in order to squeeze in as many audience members as possible.

For his soloists Handel had to rely on several local singers previously unknown to him. One soloist, however, the London actress Mrs. Susannah Cibber, brought a certain notoriety with her on account of highly publicized divorce proceedings. She seems to have mesmerized the audience with the pathos of her singing, prompting the Reverand Delany to stand up and shout, “Woman, for this be all thy sins forgiven.” Dubliners were ecstatic over Handel’s new oratorio. One critic wrote:

Words are wanting to express the exquisite Delight it afforded to the admiring crouded Audience. 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.

By contrast, London had mixed feelings about Messiah when it was finally produced there in the following Lenten season on March 23, 1743. Objections were raised about the appropriateness of a theater (Covent Garden) for the presentation of a religious work and of a “Company of Players” as “Ministers of God’s Word.” But the music itself was almost universally admired. Jennens, notoriously cantankerous, was one of the few to express reservations when he finally heard the work: “As to the Messiah, ’tis still in his power by retouching the weak parts to make it fit for a publick performance; & I have said a great deal to him on the Subject; but he is so lazy & so obstinate, that I much doubt the effect.” Oddly enough one of Jennens’s greatest objections was not to a texted section, but to Handel’s Overture or “Sinfony”—he may not have liked it simply because he was unaccustomed to the French-overture style—a majestic chordal opening in dotted rhythms followed by a fast but decisive fugue.

Even for the premiere in Dublin, Handel had to revise his original score to suit the singers at hand. This was to be his practice for many performances to come, notably for the 1750 Covent Garden performance when he rewrote several bass and soprano arias for the celebrated alto castrato Gaetano Guadagni. Modern performers thus have numerous viable versions from which to choose, including the autograph score of 1741, the Dublin 1742 version; Covent Garden versions in 1743, 1745, 1749, and 1750; the 1759 version from the Foundling Hospital where Handel had given charity benefit performances since 1749; and Handel’s own conducting score with emendations from many different performances.

The outstanding organization of Messiah belies the speed with which it was composed. Jennens, following opera tradition, had crafted three “acts,” the first setting out the major prophecies concerning the Messiah; the second dealing with Christ’s suffering, death, resurrection, and the spread of the Gospel; and the third reflecting on the promise of eternal life through Christ’s victory over sin. Jennens had also planned where recitatives, arias, and choruses would fall, but it was up to Handel to linger or hurry through sections, fashion a satisfying tonal structure, vary and balance the textures, and shape the drama. One of the reasons the work immediately appealed was its novel, subtle presentation of the story line—obliquely, without character roles and with few direct quotations. Audiences were also attracted by the pleasing balance between arias and choruses (where Israel in Egypt was perceived to be chorus-heavy) and the decreased instances of lengthy recitatives accompanied only by continuo. A perfectly legitimate response to time pressure was Handel’s recycling of previous materials, mostly Italian duets written in July 1741. One became the basis for the choruses “And He shall purify” and “His yoke is easy” and another for the chorus “For unto us a child is born.”

Despite his lightning-quick response to the text, Handel’s genius shows in countless details, making Messiah entirely worthy of its popularity. Aside from making each recitative-aria-chorus grouping cohere harmonically, Handel carefully chose his contrasts of key, texture, and character, whether in general mood or to bring out certain words. A wonderful contrast, for example, occurs with the sublime shift to the major mode and a soothing accompaniment to illustrate the serene mood of the tenor’s opening “Comfort ye” after the stern tone of the overture. It was no accident that Handel brought back the same major key at the opening of Part III for the lovely soprano aria “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”

A set of startling juxtapositions comes with the blazing outbursts for the “refiner’s fire” in the aria “But who shall abide the day of his coming,” and a glorious change in texture creates a veritable shimmer for the sudden appearance of the heavenly host before the chorus’s jubilant “Glory to God.” The gentle pastoral nature of the purely instrumental Sinfonia pastorale is matched by that of the tender “He shall feed His flock.” All one need do is mention individual words—“exalted” (tenor aria “Ev’ry valley”), “shake” (bass accompanied recitative “Thus saith the Lord”), or “rejoice” (soprano aria “Rejoice greatly”)—and Messiah lovers everywhere can instantly bring to mind Handel’s apt musical depictions.

If some of his word treatments require serious breath control, performers agree that Handel wrote extremely idiomatically and rewardingly for the human voice. His seemingly effortless ability to make climaxes to occur comfortably as well as resonantly applies not only to solos but to choruses, which are universally acknowledged as some of the most skillful and beloved examples of the art. Their variety is remarkable, not only in shifting between fugal (imitative) interplay and large blocks of sound, but in incorporating myriad gradations between. He also uses a seemingly spare number of orchestral parts in endlessly different combinations. With his supreme dramatic sense, he saves the trumpets for the most celebratory choral movements such as the Hallelujah chorus and the “Amen” fugue—and naturally, Handel also features a solo trumpet in the aria “The trumpet shall sound.” Further, he invokes the timpani, traditionally paired with trumpets in ceremonial music, only to conclude Part II (Hallelujah chorus) and Part III (“Worthy”/“Blessing”/“Amen”).

Finally, we might address the question, “To stand or not to stand?” Tradition has it that King George II rose to his feet during the “Hallelujah” chorus at an early London performance, and since no one could remain seated while he stood, the audience also rose. It cannot be proven, however, that the king even attended one of these performances. It may be that he was warned away because of the initial religious/theatrical controversy surrounding the work. Then again, if he was in attendance, did he rise in awe or because of some physical discomfort? Whatever actually happened, audiences have risen at this point in the performance for centuries. Should the tradition continue? The choice is up to each listener, but one would hope that any thrill the experience might provide comes not out of duty but out of respect for Handel’s art.

—©Jane Vial Jaffe

Scored for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, chorus, 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 trumpets, timpani, harpsichord, and strings

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Guest Artists

Liisa Dávila, soprano

Monica Danilov, mezzo-soprano

Daniel Ebbers, tenor

Ralph Cato, baritone

Stockton Chorale

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