Conductor Stephen Stubbs (photograph by Miranda Loud, courtesy of SFS)
Last night saw the annual return of a San Francisco Symphony (SFS) holiday ritual in Davies Symphony Hall. This was, as many readers can guess, the first of two performances of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 56 oratorio, better known by its title, Messiah. This year’s conductor was Stephen Stubbs, making his debut appearance with the ensemble. In addition, all four of the vocal soloists were also making Orchestra Series Debut performances: Amanda Forsythe (soprano), John Holiday (countertenor), Aaron Sheehan (tenor), and Douglas Williams (baritone). As usual, the Director for the SFS Chorus was Jenny Wong.
From a musical point of view, this could not be a better offering, tarnished only by the excessively garish gown that Forsythe sported. Like many conductors in the past Stubbs had a harpsichord at his disposal at the podium. However, he seldom used it; and, unless I am mistaken, that was only for the “But who may abide” aria. Sadly, the program gave no credit listing for the keyboardist who alternated between harpsichord and organ for the entire evening.
More important was Stubbs’ consistently conscientious approach to dynamics. This included a judicious selection of how many string players would be deployed for each of the oratorio episodes. The result was more conducive to establishing an overall flow to a seriously long narrative that facilitated the ability of the attentive listener to “go with the flow.” As a result, even the most seasoned listener in the audience (who had probably lost count of the number of Messiah performances experienced) could easily appreciate the freshness of Stubbs’ interpretation.
This was a performance that was definitely “one for the books;” hopefully, Stubbs will return to Davies to present us with more of his repertoire.
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