MUSIC REVIEW : HALL CHORALE DOES BAROQUE ‘MESSIAH’

It is impossible to determine precisely what an “authentic Baroque performance” (to use the printed program’s wording) of Handel’s “Messiah” would be, but Friday evening at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, the William Hall Chorale made a convincing case for Hall’s vision of the work.

Ornamentation, as Hall asserts, is an essential element of Baroque music, and Hall believes it should be executed not only by the soloists but by the orchestra and chorus as well. Both bodies rendered the embellishments cleanly, uniformly and tastefully.

Hall opted for light, clear textures and elicited uncommonly lucid performances of the choral movements. To one accustomed to hearing loud, brash choral entrances, the energized mezzo-piano sound that began “Glory to God” proved a refreshing surprise. The conductor reinforced dynamic changes by contrasting a smaller contingent with the full chorale, and these contrasts greatly heightened the drama: Some fortissimo passages were downright stunning.

Hall chose remarkably fast tempos. One couldn’t argue with Hall’s lively “For unto us a child is born,” especially when it was delivered with such precision. But the “Hallelujah” chorus suffered from a hurried feeling, largely engendered by Hall’s unexplainable accelerando in the first 20 measures.

Of the four soloists, tenor Jonathan Mack proved most consistently satisfying, for his communicativeness, his extraordinarily warm tone and his fluid lyricism.

Mezzo Jamee Ard also sang with radiance, poise and feeling. The brightness of Ruth Golden’s soprano tended to contrast markedly with Ard’s pure (and softer) sound in their duet, but the soprano always sang with artful expression.

Bass John MacAllister clouded his sound by singing impure vowels (and tried to compensate by over-articulating end consonants); he nonetheless gave a dramatic account of “Why do the nations . . . ?”