Handel’s Messiah, often watered down to a benevolent Christmas carol, got the all-out passionate Baroque interpretation this magnificent oratorio deserves.  Credit conductor Paul Goodwin, a stickler for historical intent.

Philadelphia Singers Chorale and Philadelphia Orchestra: Handel, The Messiah. Celena Shafer, soprano; Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano; Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor; Andrew Foster-Williams, bass-baritone; Paul Goodwin, conductor. December 13, 2009 at Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, Board and Spruce Sts. (215) 893-1999 or www.philorch.org.

The Messiah as Handel must have heard it

As with many other music lovers, the Philadelphia Orchestra performance of Handel’s Messiah has become a yearly holiday tradition with this concert-going reviewer. Typically, it’s performed as beautifully as you might expect from the fabulous Philadelphians, but almost always in almost a Romantic way, as if it were an elaborate Christmas carol. With due respect to past conductors, this year’s performance was a superlative exception.

Conductor Paul Goodwin, in his debut with the Orchestra, gave The Messiah the all-out Baroque interpretation this magnificent oratorio deserves. Goodwin’s interest in a historical approach to music includes his tenure with the Academy of Ancient Music, and in this performance his realization of Handel’s work emphasized the grand scope of the composer’s intent.

Baroque oratorios were composed as large-scale epics of historical and mythical figures, often but not always Biblical, designed to rouse the moral sense of the listeners, who were then often gathered in a Reformation church rather than a concert hall. Moreover, the sharp pulsation of the rhythm glues the listener to the sound and lends the music a momentous implication.

An 18th-Century feel

Goodwin was able to bring the Orchestra, the chorus and the soloists together on a common wavelength to bring out the startling power of a narrative that was, in Handel’s time, undergoing its own radical rebirth and transformation. With the downsized chamber orchestra configuration, and the singers on the stage level with the instruments, Goodwin was able to evoke the feeling of an 18th-Century English church performance, as Handel must have heard it himself.

At the same time, the passion and dynamic range of the chorus and soloists assumed the grand proportions that we’re accustomed to from the Philadelphia Orchestra and its choral partners. The connotative side of the Baroque that’s dramatic and even extravagant was magically combined with the intimacy of a small orchestra. Moreover, each of the four soloists sang with unrelenting passion appropriate to the story. Soprano Celena Shafer, in particular, deserves kudos for the precision, articulation and power with which she rendered a part that’s ordinarily sung with Victorian-age sweetness.

Context matters

As usual, David Hayes and the Philadelphia Singers Chorale performed with cohesion and clarity and, in this case, with stratospheric volume in the triple-forte passages.

What can be learned from this superb performance? Perhaps that it’s worthwhile for a conductor to dig deeply into the composer’s intent and historical context instead of making music palatable to a post-modern audience. And that the music of this holiday season can bring us something more evocative than mere tidings of comfort and joy.