Handel bucks the tradition

Tradition is fine as long as it doesn't become stifling. Last night's performance by the King's Consort was, of course, scheduled for Christmas, and the audience did, indeed, stand for the Hallelujah Chorus but this was not a Messiah hidebound by tradition. Some might have found it at times almost too well-behaved but it was never ponderous.

Conducting from the harpsichord, Matthew Halls achieved a sense of momentum gathering inexorably; textures, both choral and orchestral, were transparent and rhythms were light.

That in turn allowed the text to register. Even for a non-believer, Charles Jennens's libretto is an astonishing assemblage of biblical poetry but it needs singers who want not just to sing but to communicate.

Halls's four soloists were models of vocal commitment; even a late substitute, Julia Doyle, slotted into place perfectly, her bright soprano airy and free-flowing. At the other end of the scale, Andrew Foster-Williams's delivery of The Trumpet shall Sound had real urgency, underlined by Ross Brown's perfectly phrased trumpet solo, while Hilary Summers soft-grained contralto added its remarkable weight to the whole.

Finest of all was tenor James Gilchrist, the very antithesis of the bloodless English tenor that Handel so often gets.

From the opening phrases of Comfort ye, my People, he grabbed the audience by the lapels and forced us to listen to every word. Two hundred and fifty years of tradition simply melted away; this was today's news, raw and compelling.

The King's Consort/Halls: Handel's Messiah
Cadogan Hall
Sloane Terrace, SW1X 9DQ