MUSIC REVIEW
Choirs master story of savior

By Ruth O. Bingham
Special to The Advertiser

Despite its long and celebrated history, Handel's "Messiah" is not very well known.

Contrary to popular tradition, "Messiah" is not a Christmas story. Nor is it an Easter story, although it provides appropriate music for both. It isn't even really the story of Jesus' life.

Rather, "Messiah" narrates what the coming of a Savior has meant to mankind.

The story is in three parts, echoing the Christian trinity.

Part 1 covers prophesy and birth; Part 2, Jesus's suffering, death, and triumphant rebirth, ending with the "Hallelujah" chorus; and Part 3, mankind's redemption through faith and thanksgiving; the whole ending, like a prayer, with an "Amen" coda.

On Friday, and for the first time in many years, the Honolulu Symphony presented "Messiah" almost complete, omitting only a few numbers in Parts 2 and 3.

Friday's performance capped the eighth Hawai'i International Choral Festival, swelling the ranks of the Honolulu Symphony Chorus to more than 170, with singers from New Zealand, Singapore, and Osaka, Japan, and California, as well as from several choirs across Hawai'i.

Chorus Director Karen Kennedy blended the disparate singers into a homogenous group and elicited a light, agile sound that belied the choir's size, while still providing the power for those famous climaxes.

The combined choirs created exquisite moments, such as at the high, pianissimo entrance by the sopranos in "Behold the lamb of God," the shaping of the word "surely" in "Surely He hath borne our griefs," the dramatic contrasts in "Since by man came death," and the rousing climax in "Worthy is the lamb."

Soloists matched the choir's lightness with focused voices and forward placements that afforded exceptionally clear enunciation, making the supertitles a nice addition but not strictly necessary.

The two male soloists, tenor Vale Rideout and bass-baritone Burr Cochran Phillips, matched especially well, with mid-sized, buoyant voices and crystalline timbres. Phillips struggled with sections of "Behold, I tell you," but delivered a deeply moving "For behold, darkness shall cover the earth," his voice opening in bloom at "great light" in the following aria. Rideout proved the most consistent, his voice revealing an affinity for dramatic narration and his beautiful reading of the opening "Comfort ye, my people" setting the work's theme of reassuring salvation.

The two female soloists, soprano Louise Toppin and mezzo-soprano MilagroVargas, presented contrasting voices, Vargas' rich and dark, Toppin's translucent, with a bright shimmer. More lyric than agile, Vargas' voice excelled in smooth, expressive numbers, as in "O thou that tellest," and her anguished "He was despised."

Toppin's voice proved enigmatic: currently medium-large, it is apparently still growing and sounded as though she is still uncovering its capabilities. Toppin's singing suggested promise as a coloratura: Her voice has a wide variety of expressive colors combined with great agility, as she demonstrated so well in "Rejoice greatly."

Maestro Samuel Wong conducted, mediating smoothly between soloists, choir, and orchestra. He chose an orchestra almost the same size as Handel's, yet despite the disparity in size between orchestra and chorus, balance was excellent, the soloists clearly audible throughout and the choir only occasionally overpowering the orchestra in climaxes.

As uplifting as "Messiah" is when truncated to fit Christmas or Easter programs, it was a much more powerful, more moving message in its more complete form on Friday. Its somber stretches created greater contrast for jubilation, and its neglected Part 3 connected the Messiah's life from so long ago to now: the daily comfort of faith, gratitude for forgiveness and for the gift of life after death.

Audiences still stand for the "Hallelujah" chorus at the end of Part 2, even though few understand why.

At Friday's concert, the significance became clear through context: the chorus is, as Kennedy explained, "the triumph of sacrifice over death," neatly summarizing the first two parts, and providing impetus for the third part's gratitude "... for ever and ever. Amen."