Magnificent Messiah in Montréal

If there are bragging rights in the world of Messiah performances, then Bernard Labadie and his Les Violons du Roy orchestra and chorus La Chapelle de Québec can claim a respectable share, owing to their outstanding rendition of the complete oratorio before a sold-out house last December 6 in Montréal. They were joined by a world-class all-Canadian team of soloists, most notably rising star soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian and renowned countertenor Daniel Taylor. As growing audiences in Québec–and indeed throughout Canada and much of North America–know, when it comes to Baroque music, this orchestra and conductor are capable of anything Amsterdam or London can boast, and Labadie’s vital, vibrant, at times electrifying performance of Handel’s masterpiece showed not only the requisite familiarity with interpretive options, editions, and variants of period practice, but a real point of view regarding these important issues.

From the opening chorus, “And the glory of the Lord”, the word “rhythm” came to mind and stayed right through the final “Amen”.

This performance danced, it swung, it lilted, it flowed–and whether aria, recitative, or chorus, it never stopped moving. Articulation was uniform, not only within the chorus, but across the orchestral accompaniments as well. Even the orchestra and soloists would urge each other to increasing virtuosic heights, as in the exchanges during Taylor’s truly terrifying “refiner’s fire” aria. The chorus deserves as much praise as words can express, for it not only unflaggingly kept Labadie’s purposeful pace but delivered some near-astonishing moments of drama that never let us forget that this is not just a “religious” work, but a truly theatrical one as well. The nicely wrought ornaments on the word “lamb” in “Behold the Lamb of God” (exactly repeated in the orchestra) were almost chillingly effective (in the best sense), and dozens of tiny details of expression and emphasis combined to bring life to each text without gratuitous effects and without asking anything unreasonable of the singers and players.

The aria “He shall feed his flock”,

so often ruined by dragging tempo and slogging phrasing was actually uplifting (as it should be) due to Labadie’s insistence on respecting meter and text–using the words and Handel’s artful rhythmic settings to move and drive rather than adopting some conductors’ seemingly arbitrary focus on speed alone. Labadie and his orchestra, who have been together a long time, prove the value of long-term relationships by their near-flawless communicative awareness: a little surge here, an accent there, a perfectly managed tricky transition–all done with an economy of movement and gesture. Labadie also brought some new ideas to the work, such as an eerie exploitation of the chromatic harmony and modulations in the chorus “Surely he hath borne our griefs”; his sense of drama made for an unforgettable ending to “All we like sheep”; and incredibly refined singing and precise bow articulation made choruses such as “He trusted in God” as exciting as the “Hallelujah!”, the latter of which he began with a kind of hushed surprise rather than a full-out blast–a startling, effective, and memorable twist on the usual approach. And also memorable–after a little bit of a nervous start–were soprano Bayrakdarian’s several arias, especially her absolutely stunning “Rejoice greatly”, a rendition that any of today’s most accomplished singers would be hard pressed to match.

Yes, there were a few entrances from both chorus and orchestra that could have been more confident and sure–but these were extremely rare. I also was disappointed in some chorus members’ resorting to distracting and unnecessary “ha-ha-ha” mannerisms in the fastest melismatic sections. And then there was the totally unaccompanied “Behold a virgin shall conceive” recitative by Taylor, which at first impressed me as an interesting touch, but then just felt a little odd at that point–nothing else was performed that way. But these are small concerns in what amounted to a three-hour-long, multiple-curtain-call triumph. And if you don’t believe me, just ask the little boy in the front row who was just as awake and excited at 11:30 pm when the performance ended as he was when it began.–David Vernier