by Robert Myers

Boston, MA, 9 October 2009.  On Friday evening, the Handel and Haydn Society presented the opening concert of its 2009-2010 season to a substantially filled Symphony Hall.  The new Artistic Director, Harry Christophers, took the stage to pleasantly welcome the audience and to make some remarks about the season and his delight at assuming the leadership of the Society.

Following his introduction, the orchestra took the stage and began the program with Antonio Vivaldi’s Overture to La Fida ninfa, 1 of 47 extant operas by the composer.  Unlike the modern concept of opera overtures, this piece stands out in curious contrast for being presented in 3 movements.  Although later Italian composers such as Rossini sometimes composed multi-movement overtures, such as for his Guillaume Tell, it is nonetheless a characteristic that lends the work solidarity as a stand-alone piece.  Led by the energetic Jean-Christophe Spinosi at the podium, the period orchestra performed the terraced dynamics that are so archetypical of Vivaldi’s composition with great finesse and conviction, withholding none of the dramatic impact the work was intended to foreshadow.

After the overture’s conclusion, Spinosi returned to the stage accompanied by renowned countertenor Andreas Scholl, a performer with few peers in this generation.  Scholl began his performance with Vivaldi’s Cantata: Cessate, omai cessate, a work which laments a lost love in the form of two pairs of recitatives and da capo arias.  Scholl’s countertenor is remarkably colorful, both controlled and emotive.  The da capo aria form, literally meaning “to the head,” is quite simply an ABA structure, famous for the embellishments to be added by the performer upon the reprise of the A section.  Scholl performed the fioritura of the first aria, “Ah, ch’infelise semper,” with the greatest facility and ease, which combined with the period orchestra created an anachronism on the Symphony Hall stage.  The 2nd of the 2 arias, “Nell orrido albergo ricetto di pene,” provided a beautiful textural contrast, rife with energy from the orchestra as well as Scholl.  A performance of Vivaldi’s Sinfonia in B minor, RV 169, “Al santo sepolcro” followed, a sacred work most likely composed for an Easter Vigil service.  The dissonance in the piece creates a palpable tension which Vivaldi’s harmonies serve to release, and the orchestra executed the contrasts magnificently, particularly the soft opening that begins the 2nd movement Allegro.

Scholl returned to the stage after the Sinfonia to perform arias from George Frederic Handel, a composer much beloved by countertenors and for whom Scholl obviously has great affection.  When compared with Vivaldi, Handel’s writing is far more elastic, and Scholl’s control of his upper tessitura in “Dall’ondoso periglio...Aure, deh, per pieta” from Handel’s Giulio Cesare was laudable.  A delightful change of pace, “Se parle nel mio cor” from Handel’s Giustino, whose florid vocal passagework seemed effortless, followed and concluded the 1st half.  Scholl’s performance of these arias was both familiar and compelling, as though he was welcoming the audience into a sacrosanct corner of his repertoire.

After the intermission, Scholl returned to the stage to perform a pair of sacred works intended for Holy Week: Vivaldi’s Introduzione al miserere, “Filiae Maestae Jerusalem” and Stabat Mater, both stemming from the period when Vivaldi composed music for the Ospedale della Pietà.  The aria from the Introduzione, “Sileant Zephyri,” is a gorgeously structured textural mosaic, with a wide and diverse palette.  Scholl demonstrated his great love of text painting and shading words within his vocal line with great adulation and tension with the utmost control.  Throughout his performance, Scholl’s selections of tones and textures exemplify the style of the period.  His straight-tone onsets contrast deliciously with his use of vibrato, drawing the ear’s attention to the subtlety of his interpretations.

Within the Stabat Mater, Vivaldi’s orchestrations provide varied and interesting backgrounds to the vocal line, such as the duet between soloist and concertmaster in “Quis non homo quis non fleret.”  Cleverly, the most ornamental movement in the Stabat Mater is the “Amen,” rife with melisma and vocal ornament, showcasing Scholl’s facile coloratura and immense phrasing, concluding with a Picardy Third (a major tonic chord ending a piece in the minor mode) to end the piece.  The Handel and Haydn society began its season with immense stores of energy and precision, a prodigious start to an exciting concert calendar.