After the success of their Alexander's Feast, and subsequent recording, the vocal and instrumental forces of Ludus Baroque could only move on to Handel's Ode – or, as named on this occasion, Song – for St Cecilia's Day, which was what they did this week in an atmospheric performance in the sympathetic surroundings of Canongate Kirk.
From the opening concerto grosso, the second to be heard in the course of the evening, to the flourishes of the final Grand Chorus, which needed fewer than 20 alert voices to make its effect, the performance conducted by Richard Neville-Towle said much for Handel’s illustrative inventions. Song, indeed, was the word, and the entire work was Handel’s enhancement of Dryden’s soft complaining flute, trumpet’s loud clangour, sharp violins and heavenly harmony.
To hear the text first spoken by David Jackson Young, then enlivened by two fine soloists (Ed Lyon keenly articulate in his call to arms, Mary Bevan serenely lyrical in her chain of solos) and the baroque cellist who shone amid the fine array of instrumentalists, spoke eloquently for Handel’s mastery. A short cantata, Look Down Harmonious Saint, championed by the crisp-voiced Ed Lyon, served as prelude. Though a few pauses needed tightening up, the message was clear. Fewer Messiahs, and more of this sort of thing, would do us all a world of good.
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