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Handel: Messiah

18, 19, 20 December 2003

Riverside Church, New York

Rosemary Joshua

Alice Coote

Mark Padmore

Gerald Finley

The Westminster Symphonic Chorus

New York Philharmonic

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

What the critics say

[Extracts] Allan Kozinn, New York Times, 20 December 2003

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7D6143FF933A15751C1A9659C8B63

Given the right repertory, a full-size symphony orchestra can easily be two places at once. The New York Philharmonic doesn't do that particular trick very often, but this week it split in two and went into direct competition with itself. As Jeffrey Kahane conducted one orchestra in a Mozart and Haydn program at Avery Fisher Hall, Nicholas McGegan led the other in Handel's ''Messiah'' at Riverside Church. That choice is offered again tonight.

…It would be foolish of course to expect the Philharmonic to play like a period-instrument orchestra, and Mr. McGegan made no effort to force that kind of sound from it. In place of the astringent timbres of early strings, for example, the Philharmonic's strings produced the broad, silken tone that is one of the orchestra's best traits. The brass and percussion, in the later sections of the work, were as hefty and assertive as ever. Mr. McGegan's stamp had more to do with tempos, which in the choruses were uncommonly brisk, and with coaxing his singers and players to produce the kind of articulation that gives every moment of the work both a crystalline texture and the right emotional weight.

That is a balancing job listeners often take for granted, but when everything is right -- as it was in much of the performance on Thursday -- the results are both moving and viscerally powerful. The soloists' contributions are crucial as well, and Mr. McGegan had a fine group at hand.

…Rosemary Joshua, the soprano, and Alice Coote, the mezzo-soprano, phrased thoughtfully, and their collaboration on ''He Shall Feed His Flock'' was a highlight. So were Gerald Finley's accounts of the baritone arias, most notably ''The Trumpet Shall Sound,'' in which he was supported by Philip Smith's brilliant rendering of the solo trumpet line. And Mark Padmore brought an appealingly lithe tone to the tenor arias.

The singers ornamented their arias subtly, and while one admired their suppression of the urge to show off, more daring embellishments would not have been out of place. The Westminster Symphonic Chorus sang admirably.