Critic’s Notebook: Debbie Does Vienna - A Belated Handel-Premiere* in Vienna

Also reviewed for Die Presse: „Deborah“ im Konzerthaus: Händels Chöre reißen mit

G.F.Handel, Deborah Y.Kenny, S.Gritton, J.Bowman etc. The King's Consort / R.King Hyperion

Handel’s Deborah gets its long-overdue Vienna premiere at the Konzerthaus

There are still first times — even for a composer as well-known and well-loved as Georg Friedrich Handel. His oratorio Deborah finally had its modern* Vienna premiere on Sunday night at the Konzerthaus — just shy of 300 years after its debut in London. (*A little further research showed that t had actually been performed at the Musikverein in 1916!)

A rarely performed and seldom recorded work, Deborah has had a knotty reception history from the start: Handel’s second English-language oratorio was a flop at its premiere, and the libretto — not without some justification — was mocked as sub-par. Later, the piece was dismissed as a pasticcio, given that Handel, unusually even for him, recycled a remarkable number of earlier pieces: only about 32 percent of the score is newly composed. As a result, Deborah has always sat awkwardly between Esther (his oratorio breakthrough) and his early oratorio blockbuster Saul.

And yet it has its undeniable charms: a grand-scale cast and loads of glorious choruses. These delights were put to vivid use in the Grosser Saal by the Amsterdam Baroque Choir & Orchestra under their director, Ton Koopman.

In the title role, soprano Sophie Junker impressed with a bright, velvety, powerful — if surprisingly vibrato-heavy — voice, which came into especially moving focus in the aria “In Jehovah’s awful sight.” Opposite her, Jakub Józef Orliński, a rising star among countertenors, sang the role of Barak. He started off solidly and only got better from there: his focused, clear, and piercing tone — mesmerizing especially at full volume (and it gets very loud) — had undeniable charm. Think Andreas Schager, but for the Baroque and with better intonation.

That said, not everything sparkled. Koopman’s own organ playing was occasionally smudgy, the violins had their patchy moments, and the chorister doubling as the high priest of Baal was, frankly, out of his depth. Still, another chorister, Kieran White, made a convincingly vivid herald, and Amelia Berridge was delightful as Jaël, especially when merrily recounting how she nailed Sisera’s head to the ground with a wooden tent stake.

Granted, the ABO doesn’t currently play at the level of the Ensemble Pygmalion — but when the 26-head strong choir let rip with “O Baal, monarch of the skies!” you could see feet tapping along in the audience rows. Rightly so. Especially given that they performed a whole lot better than any such local ensemble could reasonably have been expected to do, the singular boo that rained down was rather inexplicable.


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