Paulist Boy Choristers Offer Stylish Handel

Stylistically informed soloists and period instruments are no longer uncommon in “Messiah” performances. But it is still rare, even in the most historically committed precincts, to hear Handel’s oratorio sung with an all-male chorus, as the Paulist Boy Choristers and supporting forces did again Saturday at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Westwood.

The sound of this choir--12 men covering the alto, tenor and bass parts, and 18 boy sopranos--was highly unified and well energized, with conductor Dana T. Marsh encouraging limber singing of surprising heft, as well as clarity and point. He concentrated on emotional characterization in a generally firmly paced performance, sagging a bit at the beginning of Parts 2 and 3.

Marsh also provided object lessons in vocal ornamentation as a graceful countertenor soloist. Indeed, all the solo singers, including soprano Ann Monoyios, tenor Benjamin Butterfield and bass Curtis Streetman, embellished their parts--assigned following Handel’s London versions--with tasteful flair, enhancing the inherent textual and musical emphases.

Monoyios and Butterfield, both with substantial early music credits in Europe, were making their local debuts, and both impressed with bright, attractively focused voices and intelligent musicianship. Streetman has a darker, more covered voice, and seemed a bit mannered at first, but delivered an imposingly dramatic and articulate account of “Why do the nations so furiously rage together?”

Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra backed the singers with lean, accommodating playing, working to greatest effect in the more extroverted and concerted movements. Elsewhere, the ensemble often proved dishearteningly unstable in intonation.