United States Handel-Mozart, Messiah: Graycen Gardner (soprano), Hannah Little (mezzo-soprano), Edmond Rodriguez (tenor), Steve Pence (baritone), Los Angeles Master Chorale and Orchestra / Grant Gershon (artistic director). The Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles. 15.12.2024. (LV)
The performance of Mozart’s arrangement of Handel’s Messiah (Der Messias) by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall highlighted the fascinating challenges of presenting this hybrid work in modern settings. The Chorale’s seasonal undertaking, which usually uses some version of Handel’s original score, was led by its longtime music director Grant Gershon and featured 48 singers and 45 musicians including three trombones, ultimately fell short of its promise, raising questions about scale, venue, and historical authenticity.
The performance struggled with fundamental issues of balance and acoustic presence. The forces employed were numerically the same as Mozart employed when it was premiered for an audience of about 250 in the intimate palace library in Vienna of Baron Gottfried van Swieten, who commissioned the arrangement, but the ensemble seemed to disappear into Disney Hall’s vast spaces and cried out for more strings to realize Mozartian notions of sound.
Distinguished musicologist Malcolm Bruno’s insights from his recent Edinburgh experience with baroque works illuminate these challenges. Working with the BBC Scottish Orchestra this summer, Bruno discovered that performing baroque works with romantic-sized forces creates specific balance challenges. Even with a string section of 20.18.12.8.4 and a chorus of 120, the sound failed to cohere easily. When some parts were reduced to chamber forces for better balance, the result was equally problematic. This experience suggests that while Mozart’s clearer textures might accommodate larger string sections better than Bach’s, achieving proper balance between winds and a choir of around 40 singers remains crucial.
A professional violist in the audience, hearing Mozart’s arrangement for the first time, captured the work’s essential dichotomy: ‘The clarinets, bassoons – it sounded like Mozart!’ Yet this very Mozartian orchestration, while fascinating in its own right, seemed to create a disconnect from Handel’s profound text-setting. The performance revealed how Mozart’s arrangement, while ingenious, can sometimes distance us from what makes Handel’s original so compelling – that essential quality of fully inhabiting the words.
The mostly ineffective – if not entirely inaudible – use of the amplified fortepiano (a Broadwood from 1829), while pragmatic, highlighted the complex choices faced by modern performers. Bruno’s suggestion of using an 1890s Bechstein for secco recitatives and organ for choral accompaniment in larger venues offers one historically informed solution to these modern challenges.
Among the soloists, soprano Graycen Gardner stood out with brilliant, assured singing that captured both the work’s baroque origins and classical refinement. Mezzo-soprano Hannah Little, tenor Edmond Rodriguez, and baritone Steve Pence brought earnest commitment to their roles, with varying degrees of success in navigating the stylistic demands.
The technical challenges of presenting this work were evident in the choice of Bärenreiter’s New Mozart Edition for both the orchestral parts for the musicians and the vocal scores for the singers – a compromise since the New Mozart Edition only provides German text. This required careful adjustments to wind parts when doubling vocal lines to match the English prosody, particularly in ‘If God be for us,’ Mozart’s newly (and only) composed movement.
The audience’s traditional standing for the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus provided a touching link to historical practice, even as other aspects of the performance struggled to find their historical footing.
This performance serves as a reminder that ‘authenticity’ extends beyond mere instrumental choices or edition selection. The venue itself plays a crucial role in realizing a composer’s intentions. Mozart’s arrangement, conceived for an intimate library setting, faces particular challenges when being scaled up for modern concert halls designed for large-scale romantic works.
Laurence Vittes
Featured Image: LA Master Chorale perform the Handel-Mozart Messiah at the Walt Disney Concert Hall © Jamie Pham/LA Master Chorale