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[MUSIC REVIEW] Berkshire Bach's ISRAEL IN EGYPT at the Mahaiwe
5.12.07
BERKSHIRE BACH SOCIETY
Israel in Egypt, a sacred oratorio
George Frideric Handel
Berkshire Bach Singers and Orchestra
Conducted by James Bagwell
Review by Seth Rogovoy
(Great Barrington, Mass., May 12, 2007) -- Of one thing there is no doubt -- the Berkshire Bach Society deserves kudos for attempting on Saturday night at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center an incredibly ambitious performance of Handel's Israel in Egypt, a rarely performed, somewhat unwieldy oratorio that conductor James Bagwell tried his best to grab hold of and wrestle to the ground and to make it sing and praise in all of the right places.
And by the end, the orchestra, chorus, and singers acquitted themselves quite nicely, bringing the piece to a culmination that, if not quite the triumphant crescendo it
might have been, at least was in marked contrast to the relatively static performance of the first part and some of the second.
There was no question of there being a lot of talent on the stage, including several of the vocal soloists (I have no way of knowing who was whom, so cannot single out
anyone for praise by name). The enormous double choir filled every inch of the stage left by the expanded orchestra, which included organ, horns, and woodwinds in addition to the string section. It's questionable whether or not the cramped stage and canopy backdrop somehow made it more difficult for the choir to project, or if the acoustics varied depending on where one was sitting in the majestically restored theater, and if that resulted in a certain lack of dynamism in the performance.
Or, more likely, as one well-informed wag put it, sometimes there's a reason that a piece is rarely performed. While Handel had great material to work with textually and
thematically -- one of the greatest stories ever told, the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery -- his music was not as inspiring as that archetypal story.
Rather, much of Handel's score was built out of two themes -- celebration and solemnity -- and both of those were represented by relatively generic pieces of Handel -- salon music, for example - -- or recycled bits from the "Hallelujah Chorus," with some of the triumph of that piece removed. Hey, you can't blame the guy from stealing from his greatest hit -- composers have been doing that for centuries, and continue to do so up through today.
There were a few bits that stood out and suggested that Handel DID actually attempt to write specifically for the text, particularly in the section recounting the plagues, when the music somewhat replicated the sound of hailstorms or locusts.
But those parts were far and few between, and for the most part, the sold-out house -- itself a sign of audiences hungry for this sort of programming -- one was left with well-played and well-sung second-rate Handel.
Seth Rogovoy is editor-in-chief and critic-at-large at Berkshire Living magazine.
4/8/2009
The Berkshire Bach Society Chorus are barely a fourth rate entity. They shouldn't be slaughtering Handel at all, even 2nd rate music, which, in my opinion Israel in Egypt is certainly not.
From IP address: 68.114.94.121
10/10/2009
Ridiculous and wholly ignorant comments on a great Handel Oratorio.
From IP address: 24.91.81.40
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