Kicking off the New Year in Jordan Hall this past Friday, the Handel + Haydn Society’s ambitious “musical feast of Mozart + Haydn” impressed as largely successful. In a humorous introduction, Nancy and Richard Lubin Chair cellist Guy Fishman led us to anticipate Concertmaster Nosky’s jumping off “the edge of her seat” during Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 Trauer, as well as the ensemble’s premiere of Telemann’s unfrequented masterwork, Ino.
Under Jonathan Cohen, H+H dove headfirst into declarative joy and familiarity with Mozart’s glistening Exsultate, jubilate, featuring soprano Carolyn Sampson delivering perhaps one of my favorite interpretations of the work to date. Here, the acclaimed brightness of Sampson’s tessitura transformed into the light required for a virtuosic execution, though her lower register was unable to cut past the strings as effectively as she may have intended. She managed nonetheless to blend any slight ebb in phrasing. In the Alleluia, her every melisma achieved a lightness nearly reminiscent of Ameling, yet with an opulent vibrato.
Fishman was not exaggerating when he mentally prepared us for Nosky’s nearly falling off her seat amidst the vigorous bowings demanded by Haydn’s Trauer (Mourning). Tight pulses offered by the lower strings and articulated by basso continuo in the Allegro con brio served as dopamine hits for even the most ambivalent listener. To my surprise, the natural horns experienced a series of pitch mishaps throughout the second half of the Minuetto: trio while attempting to double the violin melody; it did not help that this concurred with the fleeting transition to E major, and may have been less conspicuous otherwise. Horns aside, Cohen’s absolutely brilliant direction led the H+H orchestra through the dramatic yet restrained intensity characteristic of Sturm und Drang, while also exhibiting the courage to push the threshold where other directors might have hesitated. That said, the flow of the movements felt a bit more chaotic than necessary. The iconic Adagio, the only movement written entirely in major key, and supposedly the composer’s choice for his funeral, seemed slightly faster than expected. I was hoping for a bigger breath of fresh air, and a more effective contrast transitioning into and out of the movement. Taking a too-long Luftpause before leaping into the Finale: presto seemingly vaporized the emotional soundscape; momentum ebbed with the collectively frantic sound of rustling scores. The Finale itself proved otherwise impeccable.
The concert came brilliantly to life after intermission, when Teresa Neff (Christopher Hogwood Historically Informed Performance Fellow) sat down with Cohen to introduce Telemann’s Ino, a solo cantata about a woman who becomes a deity along with her son after jumping into the sea from escaping her maddened husband. During the conversation, Cohen shared a quote from Carl Emanuel Bach that I absolutely love: “A musician cannot move others unless he too is moved.” Many programs make the mistake of introducing less well-known works with insufficient context for the audience to metabolize sonically. Instead, Neff and Cohen laughed about Ino being a “thriller film,” featuring a transformation and ending they refused to spoil; this masterpiece got the respect it finally deserves. Within this framework, we knew exactly how to listen. Once Sampson returned to the stage, the orchestra became a diegetic set piece, and the audience witnessed a mother’s journey of grief, acceptance, and rebirth. In the moment of Ino’s transformation into the goddess Leukothea, Sampson’s slow orbit around the ensemble symbolized the fate we had been waiting for all along. In many ways, Ino mirrors some of the psychological tension of Schubert’s Erlkönig, but inverts its conclusion. The H+H Orchestra demonstrated its prowess in moments of melodic drama and matched movements with textures as in the most evocative mood-painting film scores.
Friday’s concert beamed with thoughtful curation, delightful sensitivity, and a long-overdue spotlight on a well-deserved masterpiece. The Handel + Haydn Society delivered a compelling program that came alive as a fruit of its interpretive courage and respect for tradition. I very much look forward to the next musical undertaking.
Thank you, H + H, bravo!