Handel: Israel in Egypt (arr. Jeannette Sorrell)
Margaret Carpenter Haigh, Molly Netter (soprano) et al; Apollo’s Fire/Jeannette Sorrell
Avie AV2629 74:13 mins
Handel gave us several versions of Israel in Egypt, and since 2017 we have Jeannette Sorrell’s. Like other Early Music conductors before her, Sorrell restored the first part of the oratorio, accidentally cut by its first editors. She went further, creating a new score that also trimmed bits from the work’s second and third parts. This live recording comes from Sorrell’s revival of her score for a February 2022 concert.
Sorrell’s interpretation is as original as her editing. Israel in Egypt is a series of sweeping choral anthems and similar forms, with a few solos; it tracks the Jewish people’s affective journey from mourning the prophet Joseph’s death, to suffering under Egyptian bondage, to thanksgiving for deliverance. Sorrell navigates this epic boldly, with edgy tempos, provocative dynamics and flawless pacing – this last not-easy task amid the double-chorus numbers with which this oratorio is stuffed. She executes persuasive pivots in voicing, for instance when she has the sharply differentiated lines of the densely contrapuntal ‘Sons of Israel’ melt into creamy homophony.
Laurels also go to the band Apollo’s Fire, which restrains its customary unruliness in service of the project, and to the choir Apollo’s Singers, whose superb technique and dramatic flair, and the soloists drawn from its ranks, likewise serve Sorrell’s vision. In ‘Their Land Brought Forth Frogs’, countertenor Daniel Moody, with his sweetly delicate voice, heightens diction to highlight the weirdness of Handel setting pestilence to a jaunty tune. The luminosity of velvet-toned baritone Edward Vogel’s ‘To God our strength’ is due partly to his lightening of vocal texture in the playful second part of the air. This recording is a powerful argument for ‘Sorrell’s’ Israel in Egypt. Berta Joncus
