UT Music: All-Handel

George Frideric Handel can be deceptively difficult. I say this as one who, in past choral days, was tortured mercilessly by Zadok the Priest. An all-Handel concert, then, can be an indicator of the performance level for a university music program, both in orchestral playing and choral performance. An April Sunday afternoon concert by the University of Tennessee Chamber Orchestra and combined choirs of the UT Chamber Singers and UT Concert Choir proved to be just that.

Conducted by retiring director of choral activities, David Stutzenberger, the forces took on Handel’s Coronation Anthem No. 4 (My Heart is Inditing); the Concerto Grosso in B Minor, Op. 6, No. 12; and the Dettingen Te Deum, HWV 283. The problem in commenting on a concert such as this is where to set the performance bar. For indeed, that bar has gone up nicely in the last few years.

My Heart is Inditing, one of four anthems written for the Coronation of King George II and the Queen consort Caroline in 1727, was performed late in the service at the point of the crowning of the Queen. Probably for that reason, it opens with a genteel Andante, rather than a ceremonially pompous fanfare. As befitting a delicate and refined quality, it opens with soloists, or in this concert, a group of singers on each part before the full choir enters. The second and third sections are interesting for the choir in that they employ rhythms (and require good choral diction) to the words “King’s daughters” and “and the King shall have pleasure…in thy beauty.” The brisk closing Allegro begins with a workout for the strings, followed by the chorus, and then – at last! – the trumpets, nicely played, with the expected pomp to close a ceremonial anthem.

The anthem was followed by the last of Handel’s Concerti Grossi of Opus 6, No. 12 in B Minor. The concertino soloists were Peter Aguilar and Rachel Grubb, violins, and Deborah Shields, cello. The concerto, conductor-less, was played solidly at a manageable, but not overly brisk, tempo. Tempo can be an issue with Baroque concerti such as this one – too slow a tempo and they become leaden and heavy – too fast and … well, you know.

The second half of the concert was devoted to Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum. While not a Te Deum in the religious sense, the work was written to commemorate the British and Austrian victory over the French at Dettingen in 1743. It consists of 18 solos and choruses, the soloists being altos, baritones, and basses. The chorus and orchestra did an excellent job, but again, tempo is important, particularly in the longer choral works such as this.

It is my feeling that there is a bit of the theatrical Handel in everything he wrote, even his religious and ceremonial works. It is this theatrical spark – Handel’s stylistic pulse -- in tempo, in phrasing, in general orchestral balance – that defines Handel’s style and makes his works exciting for contemporary audiences.