Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SECOND COMING, 3 Oct 2009
During Handel's long eclipse probably no composition of his suffered so much from misediting of the score, misdirected performances and misconceived scholarly comment as the Dettingen Te Deum did. However from around 1980 matters started to be mended, first through a French recording by the musicians of the Sorbonne and then a year or two later by Simon Preston with the Westminster Abbey forces, each of these in turn marking a huge advance on what had gone before. They educated me for one in what this great composition really amounts to, and now when I look for modern replacements I find the situation transformed. I have just got myself a Swiss account directed by Diego Fasolis plus the Hyperion set from Stephen Layton plus this Naxos production, and if I say that this is my least favourite among the three I need to add that even it qualifies for a rating of 5 stars.
This blazing masterpiece needs top-class recorded quality - better than Preston got -- as surely as Berlioz does, or Wagner or Strauss. The work is punctuated by great choral climaxes, and not only is Handel incomparably the greatest master of that kind of sound who ever was, there is astonishing variety in the type of sound he creates, and the recording has to be able to convey this. Here the recording does its job, so we can exercise our critical judgment on how the performers do their bit, and my own view is that they do it very well here, but not quite as well as my two new alternatives do. First impressions obviously count, and the way this conductor goes about the opening sequence is to keep the military tattoo of trumpets and timpani within bounds, thus enhancing the contrast with the mighty choral entrance, which I must say comes over superbly. Is this how you like it best? I confess to a hankering for complete lack of inhibition as Fasolis goes about it, but I don't expect this taste to be everyone's. Then there is the very tricky issue of how to handle `To Thee Cherubim' and what follows that. I have never heard this done to my idea of complete perfection, but it is a close call here. The feeling of grandeur builds up from the innocent start in just the way it should when the heavenly choir itself is depicted, but still leaving something in reserve for `Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory', and all I miss is just the final touch of awe as the angels intone `Holy holy holy' continually, continually... `The Father of an infinite majesty' is well done, but the others probably get a bit more infinity into it, and the last chorus of all raises an interesting question of interpretation. One way is to build up as much choral force and volume as in anything earlier, and that is how both Layton and Fasolis do it. However this is not a triumphal or majestic text, and Helbich does not choose to lose the inward and pleading tone of `in Thee have I trusted' even when the voices are raised at `let me never be confounded', and this may actually be the better way of doing it, although I can't make up my own mind.
This Te Deum is not all heavenly choirs and infinite majesty. Between the grandest passages the tones of supplication, resignation to the divine will, anxiety and hope are to be heard, and I think they come across very well here. The strong military dimension to the music is not all a matter of tattoos either, and the superbly placed `last post' from a solo trumpet makes its full effect. Excellent also are the heraldic trumpet solos introducing `Thou art the king of glory' and `Day by day'. I was not comfortable with the fast speed at `All the earth doth worship Thee', but once the voices had entered it stopped bothering me. In general if I felt slightly less at home with some choices of tempo or the handling of certain rhythms on this set than on the other two it was matter of fine shades and I don't propose to labour any such cases.
There is a very interesting filler in the form of an earlier Te Deum, based apparently on one of Handel's compositions for the rascally Duke of Chandos in his previous persona as the Earl of Caernarfon. I found this very attractive, and I noticed at least two foreshadowings of the great work of 1743, one of them no less than the Father of an infinite majesty. Astonishing how so minor an adaptation can make such a difference in the appropriate context. Again the performance ought to give no cause for complaint.
The liner starts well, but as so often declines into a blow-by-blow account of what follows what in the music. We can hear that without help, and I rather wish that Keith Anderson had devoted such space as he has at his disposal to an evaluation of the work itself. Our cultural realignment in respect of Handel has come on in 7-league strides in my own lifetime, but there is a long way to go still, and he is not yet entirely assimilated into our musical mainstream, much comment on his music is still very superficial, and this composition in particular has been an exceptional casualty of that, especially if it is the towering masterpiece that I think it is. Meantime, this is still a Naxos production and whatever very minor reservations I may have, just look at the value.
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