Above: Artistic and Musical Director of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Brett Weymark. Image: Keith Saunders. Featured image: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs were joined by Sydney Philharmonia Christmas Choir, River City Voices, Wollongong Messiah Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra and soloists Lorina Gore, Ashlyn Tymms, Nicholas Jones and Morgan Pearse. Image : Simon Crossley-Meates.

The Philharmonia Choirs with Artistic and Music Director Brett Weymark have had a truly glorious history of presenting Handel’s Messiah with huge massed choir to December audiences. This tradition has stunned crowds and now has survived the pandemic bans on choral singing. It returns this year jubilantly refined, being heard in a bold and energetic performance guise.

Weymark has thrown down an oratorio gauntlet to ensure our entertainment. His dynamic interpretation and harnessing of the 600 plus choir, the orchestra emitting a crisp accompaniment and soloists pitted against all forces from their challenging spot mid stage were breathtaking elements in this version.

Covid restrictions have bred forced cautiousness and damaged all Arts organisations both big and small. Rising as an incredibly beautifully nuanced phoenix from the ashes of such timid fearful times, this Messiah id one for our times. It heals and compels musicians, singers and audience forward with its successful freshness.

Above: Soprano soloist Lorina Gore.

So what conditions were attached to the afore-mentioned gauntlet cast down for this choral classic?

This time the  Handelian army are saying:  “We trusted in Brett to deliver the moody, emotionally charged Messiah this post-pandemic crowd of any religious persuasion needs. We will have clarity of text as the chameleon-like settings wash over us and both first-time and seasoned listeners.”

Also, “We will thrill the assembled with a familiar narrative told with a focus vivid emotional colour. We will fight to make rocketing tempo choices work no matter how complex the counterpoint. We welcome new instrumentation alongside period performance practice. And we will give subtely to gestures despite the heavenly largeness of our resources”.

Above: Tenor soloists Nicholas Jones.

Clarity is often a bugbear with choral work performed by a large choir. this is especially so in early works with a fiendishly complex musical swoop. English text can suffer under trained voices and hefty numbers of choristers.

This is not the case under Brett Weymark’s leadership. The  sold out  Messiah captivated fans old and very new with a stunningly clear, always colourful documentary of the drama and feelings surrounding the arrival and demise of a deity on earth  intent on saving us all.

Tenor soloist Nicholas Jones set the bar high in  early recitatives and arias with regards to  elegant, expressive and successfully acrobatic  elaboration. This was continued with excellent effect by soprano soloist Lorina Gore. Her treatment of ‘Rejoice Greatly’ and much later’I Know That My Redeemer Liveth’ showed particularly expert  ornamentation.

This soprano’s well-paced sense of vocal drama and tension then resolution or joy in the biblical texts was refreshing . As with the choral voices, layered  from intimate choir to huge tutti, Gore thrilled the listener whilst maintaining virtuosic clarity in delivery of the English words.

A sense of drama and hopeful joy in this presentation of the choral classic was also achieved by the addition of more modern instrumentation than usually heard. This came namely in the use of tambourine in an early buoyant chorus and later the exciting drum rolls on a floor tom during Morgan Pearse’s operatic rendering of the Psalm text ‘Why Do The Nations So Furiously Rage Together’.

Such scoring freedoms and celebration of Handel’s masterpiece with instrumental updates reflects the ingenuity of Mozart. The Classical Period master created parts for his loved clarinets as well as flute, bassoon, horn, trombone and trumpet  to further colour the score and bring the sonic pallette of Messiah into his modern world.

Above: Mezzo-Soprano soloist Ashlyn Tymms. Photo credit : Dave Fowler.

This 2022 Messiah from Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and guest voices featured masked and unmasked vocalists, with many singing from memory and all choir members performing with reverence and enthusiastic, accurate unison attack.

There was exemplary precision across the orchestra, with poignant violin solos from Concertmaster Fiona Ziegler. Also notable was the on-point cantabile freshness from oboist Matthew Bubb in counterpoint with Lorina Gore’s penetrating soprano tone. Anthony Albrecht brought an admirable continuo cello voice to the mix and displayed fine leadership of the cello contigent at all times.

As well as the performance seizing the opportunity for much soft singing and playing in new points throughout, there was a fine layering of the choir participation . This disciplined light and shade supported the escalating fervour in the words and the architectural whoosh towards resurrection and Revelations in the text.  Whilst harnessing the expressive patterning, Brett Weymark was not afraid to use massive broadening of tempi during key chorus moments.

These freedoms with tempo were never laboured, nor were they cliche. This conductor’s permission for soloists to engage similar broadenings  in their interpretations was also a masterstroke. It  preserved the focus on storytelling and made the meanings of movements clear and accessible.

Mezzo-Soprano Ashlyn Tymms gifted us some very direct communication. Her duet work with higher voices during ‘He Shall Feed His Flock’ and ‘O Death Where Is Thy Sting’ was ensemble and oratorio-drama gold. She brought delicious depth, momentum and nicely revived Baroque gesturing to the duet structures and to the successfully reburbished acoustic in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

Above: Baritone Morgan Pearse.

The audience at my performance witnessed this version and all stood, not just for the powerhouse ‘Hallelujah!’ chorus but for the final ovations too. This performance amongst several Messiahs currently taking place across Sydney resonated with kaleidoscopic utterance on the night I was fortunate enough to hear it.

Craving a recording, the interpretation and mix of orchestra, choral resources, soloists and a whole lot of heart was a jubilant celebration of the season and this beloved oratorio.

A varied and very evocative year of music making by  Sydney Philharmonia Choirs has here been  brought to a worthy and victorious close due to the high-paced  newness of this version. Be not afraid, the interpretation of choir music on a large scale have survived. It  has flourished boldly like the last trumpet in this Messiah.