Melbourne Symphony Orchestra | Handel’s Messiah

December 13, 2025, Hamer Hall, Melbourne, VIC

CAN YOU IMAGINE – I cannot – Handel’s great contemporary, JS Bach (both born 1685), recycling some of his own music, from Cantatas on, ahem, erotic themes, for his masterpiece “Messiah”!? Handel wrote the work in 3 weeks, so, presumably, that self-theft was necessary.

There’s no “standard” or Urtext edition of the work as Handel revised it several times; Mozart wrote a re-orchestrated version; Handel had seven soloists in some versions and huge orchestras featured in it, in the 19th Century especially. It’s had many lives, sometimes with hundreds of choristers, and come up trumps as a beloved work in the English-speaking world.

Wonderful to see 30 or so, orchestral players, and 80 singers of the MSO Chorus, ably prepared by Warren Trevelyan-Jones, led with masterly grace by Swedish-born Sofi Jeannin (chief conductor of the BBC Singers, since 2018, and hugely experienced with many choirs and ensembles, worldwide). The rhythms were crisp and snappy and I particularly enjoyed the subtle string commentaries under various arias as well as the authentic turns (decorations) on string phrases. The Chorus was especially powerful when all four sections were employed in vocal tuttis (all in!), and a very busy conductor had her eyes and hands in control of everything.

Vocal soloists need to be of the highest standard as they bring focus to the words and musical moods of the piece; here we were lucky to have four standout, experienced performers: Andrew Goodwin, tenor; Morgan Pearse, baritone; Ashlyn Tymms, mezzo; and Samantha Clarke, soprano. In” Ev’ry valley” Goodwin’s pure tenor soared through the auditorium. Part Two’s “He was despised” allowed Tymms to express the grief in this Aria, where music so beautifully mirrors the words. Pearse’s vibrant baritone featured in “Why do the Nations” and “The Trumpet shall sound” in the Finale, his deep notes imitating the trumpet accompanying him. Trumpeters Shane Hooton and Callum G’Froerer played their parts with great precision.

Soprano Samantha Clarke’s tone and expression were totally convincing in arias such as “I know that my Redeemer liveth” and she seemed completely at ease on the stage; her operatic experience showing through, including that of Cleopatra in Handel’s “Giulio Cesare”.

Timpanist, John Arcaro, waited to underline triumphant moments in the conclusion, yet his body language indicated his absolute involvement in the whole piece, as he listened intently. (Comparisons are odious, but I once saw a trumpeter in a suburban orchestra, which shall remain unnamed, reading a book on his stand as he waited to finally come in.) A special mention, too, of Organist, David Macfarlane and Harpsichordist, Laurence Matheson, who couldn’t be heard individually, often, from where I was sitting, but whose work underpinned the total sound.

The audience, standing for the Hallelujah Chorus (why do we replicate George II’s standing-up, back in the day? ), stood again to roundly applaud such a moving and brilliant performance.

The words were compiled by Charles Jennens, back in the day, from Holy Scripture and he often worked with Handel. One day Georg Friedrich was complaining to the author about the tricky words he was attempting to set; Jennens went into the other room in order to write them out more simply. When he returned, minutes later, the improvising Handel, to his astonishment, had already completed the setting.

Handel’s visit to Italy, as a young man, where he heard opera and wrote and had one performed, changed his approach to music. He met composers such as Corelli and worked with them and then, onto to England where he wrote and staged forty or so operas of his own. He often improvised at the keyboard to develop his ideas and enjoyed the stage life (though he could swear, it’s said, in three languages when performances were troublesome, or singers impossible! Presumably, in German, English and Italian; his English spoken with a very heavy German accent).

All this theatre experience influenced Handel’s vocal writing as he knew voices intimately. One of the reasons, I believe, why the vocal lines of “Messiah” affect audiences so deeply and why this Oratorio has become a true classic. I could almost imagine the great G.F.H. sitting in the theatre, smiling at this beautiful performance – not a cuss-word evident or needed – though he may have wondered looking at his own lace-encrusted outfit, why most of the male musicians, on the night, were so plainly attired!