South Florida Classical Review

Brett Karlin conducted the Master Chorale of South Florida Friday night at Broward College in Davie.

At the most solemn moment of King Charles III’s 2023 coronation, the Archbishop of Canterbury anointed the monarch with holy oil and Westminster Abbey resounded with the music of Handel.

Handel’s Zadok the Priest, a setting of a Biblical text on the anointing of King Solomon, has been played at the crowning of British monarchs since the composer wrote it for the 1727 coronation of King George II and Queen Caroline.

This work, along with Handel’s three other Coronation Anthems and Mozart’s “Coronation” Mass were performed Friday night by the Master Chorale of South Florida and the Arcadian Ensemble at Broward College’s Bailey Hall in Davie.

Conducted by artistic director Brett Karlin and aided by four first-class vocal soloists, the singers and instrumentalists gave a performance that captured the grandeur of Handel’s music. If the textures were sometimes thick and indistinct, the performance came off with a supple sense of dynamics that brought out the drama and emotion of the music.

Having been ordered up to accompany a royal coronation, Handel’s anthems might be expected to be blaring and celebratory. And there is a lot of that in The King Shall Rejoice—composed to accompany the placing of the crown on the monarch’s head—as well as parts of the other anthems. Trumpets and timpani added to the pomp and jubilation – all kept under control by Karlin so that the music resounded majestically through the hall but never lost shape or became overwhelmed by brass instruments.

In addition to the passages of jubilation, there were darker, pensive sections. The minor-key interlude in Let Thy Hand be Strengthened, which invokes the values of justice and mercy in a king, came off as particularly moving. In softly glowing tones, the passage flowed smoothly, in spite of the grave character of the music, serving as an effective launching pad for a crescendo to a joyous Alleluia.

In My Heart is Inditing, composed to honor the queen, the chorus was joined by four guest soloists. Soprano Elisse Albian, mezzo-soprano Amanda Crider, tenor Andrew Bearden Brown and baritone Harrison Hintzsche provided a smooth, well-balanced contrast to the massed forces of the chorus. Particularly effective was soprano Albian, whose bright, focused tone arched effortlessly above the rest of the music.

The Arcadian Ensemble, the chamber orchestra that accompanied the singers, gave a sturdy performance. Intonation in strings wasn’t flawless, but the orchestra played its role effectively,  assertive when necessary but always blending well with the chorus.

In Zadok the Priest, after a soft and expectant opening in the orchestra, the music crescendoed to a joyous, fortissimo entry by the chorus. The singers rapped out “God Save the King” with the force and exultation it deserved, and gave a vigorous and strongly marked account of fast passages that gave the performance much energy.

Unlike Handel’s anthems, Mozart’s “Coronation” Mass wasn’t known to have been composed for court purposes. But it became popular later as quasi-official music for the commemoration of important events in the courts of the Austrian emperors.

The four outside soloists played a bigger role in the Mozart work, their voices forming a supple, distinct and compact player in the music, with individual voices emerging for brief passages and no weak links among the singers.

The opening Kyrie unfolded in stately, unhurried leisure, with a feeling of the gravity and dignity of the opening of a mass. There was a strong sense of theatricality in the Gloria, with sudden changes in volume and strong sense of contrast as the music darkened into a minor key.

The clear highlight of the performance was the long soprano solo in the Agnus Dei. Soprano Albian, whose singing had been a standout in the Handel, gave an expressively phrased, pure-toned performance, with a strong sense of drama as she built the aria to an almost operatic climax.

The Master Chorale of South Florida will repeat the program 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton. masterchoraleofsouthflorida.org

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