… and so to my second and final Messiah this year. I mention this, despite the fact he first was reviewed for a different website: Wild Arts’ staged Messiah at Smith Square Hall on December 9. No chorus (soloists singing them in ensemble instead) and pared-down orchestra there, but unforgettable in its drama.
Back to the traditional format at the Barbican, though (including most of the audience standing for the “Hallelujah” chorus, by no means the case over at Smith Square). And a sense of déjà vu: Ashley Riches is no stranger to the bass part, and David Blackadder is certainly no stranger to “The Trumpet Shall Sound”.
The contrast between the Smith Square and Barbican was writ large in the opening “Symphony” (Overture) of “Part the First”. Instead of tension, the mood was lachrymose, but gentle under Richard Egarr, a mood prolonged in the tenor’s “Comfort ye”. And what a young talent that tenor is: the Glaswegian singer Thomas Walker, who boasts the most lovely sound, and who was masterful in his ornaments. Cummings ensured the most rhythmically buoyant of orchestral contributions in “Ev’y valley,” just as he created a bed of sound for Walker to float (and narrate!) over in “Thy rebuke hath broke his heart”; and how beautifully Walker phrased the arioso “Behold, and see”. He has the range, too: there appears to be no break, and he is even-toned throughout. The only passage he suffered in comparison with the Wild Arts performance was the air, “Thou shalt break them” (immediately prior to the “Hallelujah” chorus). While the preceding recitative had force (“He that dwelleth in heaven”), “Thou shalt break them” did not. Luckily, that is not where Handel leaves the tenor to resonate in our memories; there is the countertenor/tenor duet in Part the Third, “O death, where is thy sting,” Walker in perfect accord with countertenor Reginald Mobley.
It was indeed good to hear Mobley: he is one of the finest of countertenors, although interestingly his voice seems to make most effect live. Recorded, it loses some of its (very) special tone quality. He first came to my attention in a performance of Bach’s St Mathew Passion at Versailles in 2016 (conducted by Gardiner) and later in a Mass in B minor with the same conductor. From his first entrance (“But who may abide”) it was not only the tone quality, but the superb sense of style that was in evidence. And how he achieved maximal contrast between “Behold, a virgin shall conceive” and a remarkably fast, “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion” (contrasts – juxtapositions – such as this were a feature of Egarr’s interpretation).
Nice to see and hear soprano Nardus Williams after her recent success in the title role of Handel’s Partenope over at ENO. The soprano soloist does not sing until after the Pifa, so there was a bit of a wait, but so worth it. Her voice in “There were shepherds abiding in the fields” was so utterly pure (but with body; interesting to compare with Emma Kirkby in the famous Hogwood version, as there are parallels!). Williams’s handling of the choir-injected narration that leads to “Rejoice greatly” was gripping, crowned by a choral “Glory to God in the Highest” with trumpets up in the balcony, a nice bit of spatial placement. “Rejoice greatly” itself was fabulous from Williams, but slightly blunted in the orchestra. “He was despised,” which lunches Part the Third, was incredibly beautiful, but lacking in dramatic weight; the sense of re-affirmed belief that may or may not be the soprano convincing herself of Christ’s presence.
It was left to the bass to provide some surety in “Behold, I tell you a mystery” and the remarkable “The Trumpet Shall Sound”. I wonder how many times Ashley Riches and the trumpeter David Blackadder have performed this together? There was a lovely sense of empathy between them, and connection. Both performed by memory (Riches was the only of the four soloists to perform from memory throughout, which did look strange). And for all of Riches’ superb presence and accuracy at speed, plus shadings, it was Blackadder who opened that air with one of the most perfect demonstrations of trumpet playing I have ever heard. It did not quite sustain itself through the complete air – Blackadder is a “he” with a lower-case “h” after all, and therefore not superhuman – but this was a stand-out moment, not least because of Riches’s perfect shading of the B section (“For this corruptible must put on incorruption”).
After that, Williams’s “If God be for us, who can be against us?” was the perfect complement (and how the strings’s comments, agile and till-decorated, made their point). Egarr’s use of contrast was exemplified in the shift from the soprano air to “Worthy is the Lamb”.
The chorus was clean in execution, but here was some glare to the sopranos. Their “Worthy is the Lamb” and a blissfully rapid and light “Amen” (nothing worse than an old-style ponderous fest here) closed the evening. A rather mixed evening, to be sure, of many parts, many of fantastic calibre, but parts that nevertheless did not congeal into one whole. Egarr’s reading is interesting in its stark presentation of contrasts but ultimately felt rather flat after Wild Arts’ Messiah-extravaganza.
And, as a perhaps amusing post-scriptum, there was a special guest star at one point. No, not Him; a mouse scampered down the aisle near the beginning of the second part. A sign? After all, mice are usually despised and rejected of men. Spooky.
Colin Clarke
Messiah, HWV 56
Composer: George Frederick Handel
Text compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens
Nardus Williams (soprano); Reginald Mobley (countertenor); Thomas Walker (tenor); Ashley Riches (bass); Academy of Ancient Music Chorus & Orchestra / Laurence Cummings (director/harpsichord).
Barbican Hall, December 16, 2025
Top image: Academy of Ancient Music
All photos by Ben Ealovega