Press: Messiah performances ‘entertain and inspire’
Press have praised this season’s NJSO performances of Handel’s Messiah with conductor George Manahan, soprano Patricia Schuman, mezzo-soprano Mary Phillips, tenor Ryan MacPherson, bass-baritone David Pittsinger and the Montclair State University Singers.
Blasting News writes:
Sunday, Dec. 18, a packed Prudential Hall in Newark’s New Jersey Performing Arts Center witnessed a breath-taking performance of Georg Frideric Händel’s epic oratorio Messiah, a perennial favorite since its 1742 premiere in Dublin, Ireland. Conductor George Manahan led [musicians, choir and soloists] in a zesty reading of the score.
Soprano Patricia Schuman and husband/bass-baritone David Pittsinger, in splendid voice, sang at the highest and lowest ranges of this widely varied work. She, the Queen of Trills, with artful precision warbled the arias “Rejoice greatly!” and “I know that my Redeemer liveth” with their multitudinous cascades, scales and roulades, the voice of glowing embers ... [Pittsinger] dispatched the aria “The trumpet shall sound” as if to prove that florid singing is just as much the providence of the lower voices as those that soar in the upper stratosphere ...
Mezzo-soprano Mary Phillips poured heart and soul into her scene “He was despisèd,” giving a masterful performance ... [Tenor Ryan MacPherson] masterfully negotiated the supple vocal lines of “Ev’ry valley shall be exalted” and “Thou shalt break them,” packing exciting ping in the piercing top notes ...
Heather Buchanan’s Montclair State University Singers delivered a crackling performance, with dynamics ranging from a surprisingly at-first-whispered “Glory to God in the highest” to a masterful polyphonic concluding “Amen,” which dwarfed even the ever-popular “Hallelujah.” “And with his stripes we were healed,” sung unaccompanied, sounded symphonic in its full-bodied textures ...
George Manahan adroitly led a brisk, crisp performance, allowing largesse at proper moments, exploiting Baroque music’s propulsive rhythms.
» Read the full review at us.blastingnews.com
Town Topics writes:
The musical holiday season would not be complete without Handel’s Messiah, which can always be heard in the Princeton area at this time of the year. In this 275th anniversary of the work’s composition, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra presented their annual Princeton performance of this popular work last Friday night to a full house at Richardson Auditorium [with] an innovative and creative interpretation by guest conductor George Manahan ...
There is a myriad of approaches to 18th-century performance practice, and conductor Mr. Manahan began the Overture to Messiah in an elegant tempo without overly-dotted rhythmic figures. The orchestra incorporated an especially graceful effect of having instrumental passages repeated by a string quartet of principal first and second violins, viola and cello. The quartet and full ensemble seamlessly alternated musical passages, in a concerto style true to the time in which the work was written.
...
Messiah has always been known as a work for chorus. For Friday night’s performance, the Montclair State University Singers had been well prepared by Heather Buchanan. The chorus was consistently well balanced, with a young and fresh sound from the sopranos and uniform vowel production from all sections ... Following Ms. Schuman’s “Angel” recitatives, the chorus uniquely began “Glory to God” as if from afar — evoking a chorus of angels gradually getting closer to the action.
The members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra who played this performance were consistently focused on clean articulation and lean playing. Led by a continuo trio of harpsichordist Robert Wolinsky, portatif organist Masayuki Maki, and cellist Jonathan Spitz, the orchestra provided well-defined playing throughout the work, emphasized by an imaginative performance of solo quartets within the ensemble ... Messiah is a piece for scholars, but an ultimate goal is to entertain and inspire audiences, and Friday night’s performance by New Jersey Symphony Orchestra succeeded in both.
» Read the full review at www.towntopics.com