And of letting the chorus shine. The Clarion Choir, directed by Steven Fox, was superb in the score’s many moods: the stout “Your harps and cymbals”; the hovering mist of “With pious heart”; the fragrant “Nightingale Chorus” (“May no rash intruder”) at the end of Act I. Even in the stentorian “From the censer curling rise,” the group had an airy sound, artfully balanced — and blending — with the orchestra.
In “From the east unto the west,” there was a sense of vast fields of tone, shifting and overlapping, and the Clarion forces rose to the great sequence of Act III: gentle, then intense, then stark, then gauzy. (Bicket, like many conductors, chose to end the oratorio with the moving chorus “Praise the Lord” rather than the more playful “The name of the wicked.”)
Those used to the dazzling solo virtuosity of Handel’s operas may find the aria parts in “Solomon” a tad sedate. Only the tenor role of Zadok the Priest is heavy on ornamentation, handled gamely if without glitter on Sunday by James Way.
Bicket cast sweet, slender voices — articulate but mellow — ensuring no singer stole attention from the chorus and orchestra. As Solomon, the mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg (a favorite of Baroque connoisseurs, too little heard in New York) was eloquent; the soprano Miah Persson was dignified as Solomon’s queen and as the victor in the baby-splitting trial. Their duets had tender lightness, a watercolor’s fresh paleness.
As the villainous second mother-claimant, the mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan was potent. The soprano Elena Villalón offered a pastoral farewell as the Queen of Sheba. The role of the Levite sometimes pushed the robust bass-baritone Brandon Cedel colorlessly low in his range.
With instruments and choir dominating, this “Solomon” was more refined than immediately vivid — understated even amid all the score’s pomp. With sensuous yet lively strings, the English Concert offered poised playing throughout, even on difficult-to-control period woodwinds and brasses. (“Solomon” is contemporaneous with Handel’s similarly blazing “Music for the Royal Fireworks” suite.)
The honeyed tone of the small complement of continuo instruments as the competing mothers approached Solomon was just one example of the care taken with details. Led with subtlety and patience by Bicket, the performance, in the libretto’s words, let “sweetly flow the lulling sound.”
Solomon
Performed on Sunday at Carnegie Hall, Manhattan.
