Outil de traduction (Très approximatif)
Translator tool (Very approximate)
Reviewer:
David Vickers
Handel’s
serenata about the marriage of Peleus and Thetis being celebrated by Apollo and
the Muses on the slopes of Mount Parnassus was described by the Daily Journal
as ‘an Essay of several different Sorts of Harmony’ – an interpretation realised
affectionately by Matthew Halls and The King’s Consort (Hyperion). Andrea Marcon
and La Cetra’s version benefits from access to the forthcoming HHA critical
edition of the score, although there is one minor incorrect detail that Halls
got right: the original 1734 wordbook confirms that a huntress is named Clori
(not Cloride). Marcon’s direction is packed with plenty of vitality but his
serial impetuousness misses out valuable aspects of the diverse music. The
passacaglia ‘S’accenda pur di festa il cor’ is marred by hard-biting snappiness
(it needed gentility and suaveness), and very quick pace inhibits rather than
liberates Silke Gäng’s turn as a carefree huntress in ‘Tra sentier di amene
selve’ (Handel’s gorgeous orchestration, featuring recorders and horns, barely
has a chance to weave its spell). The chorus ‘Cantiamo a Bacco’ feels less like
cheery praise of the God of Wine and more like an impatient binge, and the
franticness of the celebratory finale ‘Lunga serie d’alti eroi’ lacks clarity
and is devoid of nobility. On the other hand, nimble tempos pay dividends in the
horn-festooned hunting chorus ‘O quanto bella gloria’ (even if one imagines that
thwacking theorbos should not be louder than the too-distant horns). Unbridled
bellicosity in the opening scene of Part 3 has thrilling boldness (‘Si parli
ancor di trionfar’, with athletic solos from Luca Tittoto’s God of War).
Marcon employs countertenors in parts originally for high castratos. David
Hansen’s upper passagework is precise and brilliant, albeit with occasional
hints of shrillness. There is some unsteadiness from Kangmin Justin Kim at the
start of Orfeo’s lament for Euridice, but on the whole his stratospheric singing
is astonishingly sweet and sensitive. Robin Johannsen’s limpid phrasing and
judicious embellishments are spot-on in Clio’s bittersweet ‘Nel spiegar sua voce
al canto’ (a description of how Orpheus’s singing silences the wind and birds –
represented by doleful recorders). The sharp attack of the strings in ‘Già le
furie vedo ancor’ aptly illustrates Calliope’s description of Orpheus plagued by
the Furies, although intrusive organ continuo together with overly busy theorbos
diminish rather than increase the scene’s dramatic power. Apollo’s ‘Non tardate,
fauni ancora’ and its choral refrain is one of Handel’s loveliest pastoral
set-pieces, but bassoons are not prominent enough, and the tableau feels a bit
perfunctory rather than idyllic. Nevertheless, the routinely impressive standard
of musicianship in Marcon’s version makes it a welcome alternative to Halls – in
whose hands the moods and colours of Handel’s serenata always feel just right.
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