Handel and Haydn Society. Jonathan Cohen, conductor. November 30, 2024.

Symphony Hall, Boston.  First Balcony (Seat F15, $69).

Program

Handel's Messiah.

Artists

Jeanine De Bique, soprano; Reginald Mobley, countertenor; Nicholas Phan, tenor; Sumner Thompson, baritone.

H+H Society Orchestra and Chorus

H+H Society Youth Choruses Chamber Choir

H+H Society CitySing Participants

Anne and I found ourselves in the Boston area, with some time on our hands, so we decided to get tickets to this concert (starting at 3 pm), and for a BSO concert that would start at 8 pm the same evening.

We attended an H+H Messiah at Symphony Hall for the first time last year, and frankly wasn't particularly impressed.  So I wasn't sure I would do it this year, but eventually decided to give it another shot.

We walked away again somewhat disappointed.  The major issue this time was sometimes we had to strain to hear the soloists.  Our knowledge of the lyrics helped - but one shouldn't have to depend on that.  The chorus did a lot better, though.  H+H evidently spawned several choruses, and the addition of Youth and CitySing about tripled the number of chorus members.  The "guest artists" didn't do all the choruses, but they did add a lot of grandeur to the more majestic passages.

From left: Mobley, De Bique, Cohen, Phan, and Thompson.  On the left are the CitySing participants, on the right the Youth Chorus.

The directors (maybe?) of the different choruses at curtain call.

For a while I thought the cheap tickets I got had bad acoustics.  Tier 2 overhangs the seats, so there may be some truth to that.  However, I realized we had seats in the same row last year, and I didn't say anything about weak acoustics in my writeup.  Further, we had seats one row behind for the evening BSO concert, and certainly had no problems then.  (Caveat: we moved to closer empty seats after the first piece).

We had no problems sitting through the entire performance, and enjoyed the afternoon's music.  This concert would be the first of three we will attend this year:  NY Phil on 12/11, and NJ Symphony on 12/22.  If things work out as planned, this would be the first seasonal triple header for us.

Joe dropped us off, and picked us up after the BSO concert.  We ate at a nearby Japanese restaurant between the two concerts. Traffic was light in both directions.