Silent Worship- The Timeless Music of Handel

ABC Classics 476 9421

TPT: 67’05”

Reviewed by Alice Woode

Of all the greatest composers – and Handel is unquestionably in that rarefied category – this prolific genius had a particularly highly honed gift: a superb ability to write music which has a consoling quality, music capable of soothing even the most troubled spirit, the sonic equivalent of pouring oil on even the roughest of seas.

Consider the famous Largo, from the opera Xerxes. Is there a more frequently heard Handel piece apart from the ubiquitous Hallelujah Chorus? Yet it never fails to communicate meaningfully. The late David Measham does wonders with his direction of the W.A.Symphony Orchestra, imbuing these most familiar of notes with a disarming freshness.

Lascia ch’io pianga (Let me lament) is no less finely presented by soprano Yvonne Kenny with Paul Dyer directing the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra; its unhurried unfolding makes for listening of a most soothing sort.

Against the prevailing international current where, more and more, music is presented in the style and manner of its era, we hear David Stanhope playing the Courante from the Suite No 1 on a modern piano instead of the harpsichord. Purists may turn their noses up at this but, make no mistake, there’s high musicianship at work here. Stanhope’s is an exquisitely measured reading with notes clothed in mellow tone and phrases shaped and tapered in exemplary fashion.

Marshall Maguire’s rare artistry on the harp makes his account of the Passacaille one of the CD’s highlights. There’s more Handelian magic in the little Pastoral Symphony, that gentlest of interludes from the oratorio Messiah; Guy Noble’s direction of Sinfonia Australis makes much of its lulling measures. Howard Oberg (descant recorder) and the Brandenburg Orchestra reveal – beautifully – the elegance and grace of two minuets from the Water Music. A departure from this general excellence is the theme from Handel’s Harmonious Blacksmith Variations played on two guitars at a tediously slow pace. But countertenor Graham Pushee does wonders with Verdi prati from Alcina.

There are 19 tracks in all. This Silent Worship CD is one of the most impressive in this “Timeless music of…….” series.

In passing: I imagine that most, if not all, of these items are extracted from other CD collections but there are no details at all about this in the liner notes booklet. It seems an opportunity lost as I am sure that many listeners might have wanted to know more about - and, I dare say, to purchase - the collections from which these items were drawn.

Alice Woode copyright 2007

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