Annual SFS HWV 56 at Davies Disappoints

Last night Davies Symphony Hall continued its annual “Holiday Concerts” series with one of its longest traditions, a performance by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 56 oratorio, best known by its title, Messiah. Grant Gershon led the full force of the SFS Chorus, joined by the usual complement of four vocal soloists: soprano Rachele Gilmore, mezzo Leah Wool, tenor Nicholas Phan, and bass-baritone Christian Pursell. Pursell, familiar to many due to his tenure as an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera, was making his SFS debut, as was Gilmore. Phan, on the other hand, has become a “Davies regular,” particularly after his move from Chicago to San Francisco.

Gershon is Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Even during the overture, there was no doubt that his conducting was “choral-centric.” Working without a baton, he exuded an empathy for every word in the libretto compiled by Charles Jennens, mouthing many (most?) of them to establish a bond with the entire Chorus. On the other hand that bonding was never really established with the SFS instrumentalists, whose seriously scaled-down numbers (perfectly appropriate for the eighteenth century) seemed to serve as little more than background for Gershon’s passionately extroverted account of the score. Indeed, he seemed to have relegated responsibility for the orchestra to concertmaster Mariko Smiley, whose bond with her colleagues went a long way toward establishing a sympathetic relationship with the vocalists.

Sadly, all of that extroversion did not serve the Chorus particularly well. More often than not, their massive resources were just plain loud, rather than expressive. Gershon seemed to have left the task of giving the words a compelling account to the vocal soloists.

Both of the male vocalists contributed the most to making the occasion memorable one. Phan’s was the first voice to be heard, and the attentive listener could relish every nuance in his delivery of the all-too-familiar words. Pursell, on the other hand, had the more intense passages to deliver; and his account of “Why do the nations so furiously rage together” was pure dynamite from beginning to end. Similarly, his account in Part III of “The trumpet shall sound” could not have been more stimulating, particularly in his chemistry with the dazzling solo work of Principal Trumpet Mark Inouye.