Tag Archives: g.f. handel

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Advent Calendar Day 15 – Ev’ry Valley (Handel)

You knew I’d sneak some Ian Bostridge in here somewhere, right? And what could be better than a little more Messiah?

The text of this piece is read at every Advent Carol service I’ve been to – it’s another prepare ye the way of the Lord text (and now I have the Godspell version in my head), though I think it’s actually from Isaiah and not from the New Testament at all.

Look, in all honesty, I feel silly talking about the significance of this piece of music here – it really is, I think, a piece that needs no introduction, except, perhaps, to say that it is one of those pieces of music that really makes Advent for me, and is in my head during most of December. Indeed, I believe it was the inspiration for last year’s Advent Calendar, because we missed out on hearing it at last year’s service. And then my friend Lea pointed me at this recording by Ian Bostridge, and I loved it, and thus my first big opera crush was born. He truly has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. I hope you love this recording as much as I do.

(NB: You need to listen to both parts of it together – they are part of the same piece, but some obnoxious person has put an ad at the start of Ev’ry Valley, which is a terrible shame. I wish I could find a version where they didn’t, but I can’t.)

Edited December: Alas, Ian Bostridge’s ‘Comfort Ye’ can no longer be found on YouTube.  But his Ev’ry Valley is still magnificent.

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Advent Calendar Day 16 – O Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion (G.F. Handel)

Another selection from Handel’s Messiah today, with the usual difficulty that *everyone* has recorded the Messiah and there are six hundred options and none of them are ever quite what I want (because this is one that I’ve studied as a solo, so I have particularly strong opinions on it!). And so again, I’ve ended up with a style of voice I normally wouldn’t like and certainly wouldn’t associate with Handel (too heavy, basically).

What made me choose this recording in the end was that all the other soloists sounded like mezzo sopranos – lovely and light in the coloratura bits, but lacking something in the lower range. This singer (sadly, I don’t know her name) is a true alto; I don’t think I’ve ever heard a voice of this type before, actually. And her low notes are just wonderful.

Interestingly, listening to the recording again in the background as I write this, I don’t like it that much – but when I switch to the YouTube page and watch her sing, I do. And then I come back here and don’t, so much – all of which suggests that a large part of this singer’s charm is in how she puts the song across. I suspect she would be even better live.

I’ll be interested to hear what you think of this one.

Edited in December 2017: Sigh.  This recording has now disappeared, and since I never knew who it was in the first place, I can’t find another recording of her.  And so I have spent another hour or so scouring YouTube for a proper contralto singing this aria and once again had to choose between the vocal quality that I find so fascinating and the style of singing that I think this aria wants!  Perhaps one just can’t have that depth of voice with the lightness of delivery on the coloratura and I’m seeking the impossible? 

But then I found Maureen Forrester, a Canadian operatic contralto, who really has some wonderful low notes and still makes the coloratura flow effortlessly.  Hooray!  (Having said that, these days I think I really do prefer a Mezzo-Soprano for this aria, but this is still pretty wonderful.)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFZTrVJzt-o&w=560&h=315]

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Advent Calendar Day 5 – Comfort Ye & Ev’ry Valley (G.F. Handel)

Today’s choice was easy and hard. It’s a piece that John L normally sings at our Advent Service, but tonight he is in country Victoria singing it for others. Which we can’t blame him for, since it’s a full performance of the Messiah, and who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity of all those lovely tenor solos?

Still, to me Advent isn’t Advent without The Record of John and Comfort Ye / Every Valley. It’s a requirement. I’ll be singing The Record of John tonight, so today is clearly the day for some Handel.

The hard part of this was that there were so many recordings on YouTube. Some were very good. Some were dreadful. Some were good, but not quite to my taste. None of them sounded at all like John L, who is the only person I’ve ever heard actually sing this piece of music. And most of them, to be frank, weren’t as good. I hadn’t appreciated how hard a piece it is to sing well until now.

In the end, I couldn’t find a recording I loved, but I did manage to find a classic. Jon Vickers is a heldentenor, which I think means heroic tenor of a Wagnerian type. It isn’t a type of voice I normally like, or one I would associate with Handel. On first listening I found it too heavy, and didn’t listen through to the end of the recitative. This was a mistake – the end is where it catches fire, and, my god, he can actually do all those runs in ‘Every Valley’ in a single breath! Fortunately, after listening to a dozen different recordings, and reading all over the internet about how awesomely well Vickers sings this piece, I decided I’d better listen all the way through and give it a proper try. I listened to the end of the recititative and the beginning of the aria and realised that it really was the only possible version I could use, at least in the absence of John L. I don’t think he would be insulted by this*. Vicker’s voice is full of energy and excitement and life, and it’s more subtle than I would have expected from the start of the recititative, and of course he doesn’t miss a note. The technique, as far as I can judge it (not far, alas) is perfect. It really is a beautiful piece of music and of singing.

Oh, who am I kidding? I didn’t love it at first hearing, but I have fallen for it since. Apparently my secondary theme (after awesome alto lines) in this Advent Calendar is going to be wonderful tenor soloists.

But why am I talking about this music when you could be listening to it? This video comes in two parts, one for the recititative and one for the aria.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CURliKoAdQM&w=560&h=315]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uGCyCQ4760&w=560&h=315]

* He was.  John does not approve of Vickers at all.