[12/24/2011] Christmas Eve edition: A hopeful holiday greeting from G. F. Handel -- and one from L. Van Beethoven (continued)

AND OUR MULTITASKING TENOR TONIGHT IS . . .

Jon Vickers

As far as I know, Vickers recorded both Messiah and the Beethoven Ninth Symphony twice, and in a moment we're going to hear both recordings of both our excerpts. For the record, the performances we just heard before the click-through were in both cases from the later recordings: the 1959 Messiah with Sir Thomas Beecham and the 1978 Beethoven Ninth with Lorin Maazel.


BUT FIRST, LET ME TRY TO EXPLAIN AGAIN HOW
"COMFORT YE" CAME TO MEAN SO MUCH TO ME

In a 2009 Christmas Day edition of Sunday Classics on Messiah (" 'For unto us a child is born' -- the Prince of Peace"), I wrote a bit about my history with the piece as a whole and in particular the opening tenor accompagnato (or accompanied recitative), "Comfort ye." I don't know how well it conveyed what I meant, but I doubt that I can do it better, so here's what I wrote back then:

I didn't always love Messiah. Like many people, I suspect, I used to think of it as a windy old bore. Gradually I came around, but a real turning point came one day when I was visiting my friend Richard, who had a large collection of 78s and a good turntable set up for playing them (if you've never heard 78s really well reproduced, you would probably be shocked at how much sound those old grooves can contain), and I got the crazy idea of listening to at least some of Malcolm Sargent's first recording of Messiah.

No sooner had we gotten through the Overture than I was stopped cold by the Northern Irish tenor James Johnston singing the first vocal number, the recitative "Comfort ye, my people." I don't know that anyone pays much attention to it. Certainly I never did. Usually you think of it as something you go through to get to the following tenor aria, "Ev'ry valley shall be exalted." Suddenly Johnson was singing, on behalf of his God, directly to me! "Comfort ye," indeed. And then he was singing to me, as Jerusalem, "that her warfare is abolished, that her iniquity is pardoned." Whoa! And I pretty well lost it.

Now anytime I have access to a decent performance of "Comfort ye," I am readily available for having my warfare abolished and my iniquity pardoned. And gradually I've found more and more of Messiah speaking directly and personally to me.

As I suggested before the click-through, I've had the same sort of experience with the big tenor solo from the finale of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony, when I've encountered the right kind of performance while in the right sort of mood -- usually one where I'm in considerable need of bucking up.

With that background, let's turn the floor back to Jon Vickers.

HANDEL: Messiah: No. 2. Accompagnato, tenor, "Comfort ye, my people"; No. 3. Air, "Every valley shall be exalted"

Accompagnato
Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

-- Isaiah 40:1-3

Air
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low, the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.

-- Isaiah 40:4

Jon Vickers, tenor; Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Sir Ernest MacMillan, cond. RCA/EMI, recorded c1952
Jon Vickers, tenor; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Thomas Beecham, cond. (orch. Goossens). RCA/BMG, recorded 1959

from the finale of BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125

Happily, as his suns fly
across the heavens' splendid expanse,
run, brothers, your course,
joyfully, like a hero toward victory.

Jon Vickers, tenor; London Bach Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, cond. Westminster/MCA/DG, recorded June 1962
Jon Vickers, tenor; Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Cleveland Orchestra, Lorin Maazel, cond. CBS/Sony, recorded Oct. 13-15, 1978

A SUNDAY CLASSICS CHRISTMAS EVE BONUS

To hear the complete performances of the finale of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony from which these extracts are extracted, click here.

IN TOMORROW'S CHRISTMAS DAY EDITION OF SUNDAY CLASSICS --

As I mentioned last night, we're going to have a composite performance of the whole of Part I of Messiah.


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