A glorious, yet sophisticated noise: Handel’s Solomon from Paul McCreesh & Gabrieli with Tim Mead as Solomon in Inner Temple Hall

Inner Temple Hall in its modern incarnation built in the 1950s

Handel: Solomon; Tim Mead, Rowan Pierce, Hilary Cronin, Frances Gregory, Anna Dennis, James Way, Morgan Pearse, Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh; Temple Music Foundation at Inner Temple Hall
Reviewed 16 January 2025

One of Handel’s finest oratorios in almost perfect circumstances, glorious choral singing, fine orchestral playing, superb dramatic pacing and seven soloists who drew you into the drama. Pure magic.

Written in 1749, Handel’s Solomon is a lavish work, large in scale, using a double chorus and with the one of the largest orchestras Handel would write for (strings, flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani), yet Susanna which premiered the same season uses relatively compact forces. Clearly, in Solomon Handel wished the conception to match his eulogy of Georgian England.

After having written a whole sequence of martial oratorios in the years after the 1745 rebellion, Handel turned to a greater variety of sources for his oratorios, Susanna and Solomon are both Biblical, but the one has elements of a lighter operatic style, whilst the other has that large scale grandeur. Then in 1750 he would turn to a sentimental novel for Theodora, which though religious in nature is not Biblical at all, before the final towering masterpiece of Jephtha with its story combining the Bible with Euripides and the daring use of a dramatic tenor as the hero.

For Solomon, Handel seemed to be looking back. There is the use of Da Capo arias, but also the casting of the title role. This was written for a female alto, Caterina Galli, as if Handel was looking back towards the castratos of his Italian opera. Countertenors in Handel’s day rarely had the dramatic range needed for the role, though nowadays Solomon is rarely played by a woman. Having also sung Joachim in Susanna, Caterina Galli would create a sequence of remarkable roles for Handel including Irene in Theodora and Storgé in Jephtha. In Handel’s performances of Solomon the three soprano roles, Solomon’s Queen, First Harlot and Queen of Sheba, were sung by the same singer though modern practice tends to have them sung by different singers.

On Thursday 16 January 2025, Temple Music opened their 2025 season with one of their largest events yet, Handel’s Solomon performed in Inner Temple Hall by Gabrieli Consort & Players, conductor Paul McCreesh, with Tim Mead as Solomon, Rowan Pierce as Solomon’s Queen, Hilary Cronin and Frances Gregory as the Harlots and Anna Dennis as the Queen of Sheba, plus James Way as Zadok and Morgan Pearse as a Levite.

The concert took place in Inner Temple Hall, this is a traditional classical style building dating from the 1950s, and the third incarnation of the hall. The original 17th century hall was replace in the later 19th century by a Gothic one, this in turn was destroyed during the war and replaced by the present one.

A very full stage featured a choir of 30 and an orchestra using 22 strings and six oboes. The results brought a sense of intimacy to a work often given in huge surroundings (we last heard it at the BBC Proms in 2022 at the Royal Albert Hall, see my review), yet the big moments were very big indeed. Paul McCreesh also gave us a lavish version of the work, with few cuts. Solomon is an expansive piece, with arias for the tenor and bass soloists (here James Way and Morgan Pearse) that are musically interesting but not necessarily dramatically compelling. However, Solomon is one of those works that benefit from allowing it to be expansive, letting us appreciate its richness.

Solomon is the only character whom we see in multiple dimensions and Tim Mead did not disappoint. Singing with great beauty of tone yet an admirable firmness of line, in Part One he was strong yet thoughtful with a vivid urgency in his scene with Rowan Pierce’s Queen. In Part Two, Mead’s firmness of purpose continued as he gave an admirable sense of judgement. Then in Part Three he moved from the engaging invocation to music to the more statesman like in his dealings with Anna Dennis’ Queen of Sheba.

Rowan Pierce’s Queen moved from perky joy through beauty of tone to a touching account of her final aria. At every point she made the words matter, so that the scene with Tim Mead’s Solomon really crackled in all the right ways.

Hilary Cronin and Frances Gregory made two highly contrasting harlots, so that the trio with Tim Mead’s Solomon was full of twists of character. Whilst Frances Gregory made the most of her highly characterful role as Second Harlot, it was Cronin’s finely moving First Harlot who stayed in the memory, with an engagingly uplifting duet with Mead’s Solomon, and she got to complete this part with her engagingly pastoral final aria.

From her opening recitative, Anna Dennis looked and sounded every in the Queen (I am reliably informed that her frock was Issey Miyake). Even when in repose, Dennis projected character, her first air was wonderfully urgent, her second with fabulous oboe playing was masterly, ending with the glorious duet with Mead’s Solomon.

The priest, Zadok has a role which is largely non-dramatic, he simply comments. But James Way made each of Zadok’s arias count, so the in Part One his vibrantly compelling recitative led to an aria taken at a remarkable speed with the passagework being highly descriptive. He brought a nice swagger to his second aria, in Part Two after the judgement scene, and Way made the aria work when it can easily seem that Zadok is a prosy bore, saying the obvious. He finished in fine style with a lovely account if his aria in Part Three.

The Levite has a similar role, and it says a lot for Morgan Pearse’s combination of technique and character, that he made each of his arias into something vividly compelling.

The chorus was in terrific form, relishing the double choir work that Handel gave them but also turning in moments of great beauty. This is definitely one of Handel’s choral oratorios, even though the soloists have a significant contribution, and the Gabrieli’s 30 singers not only gave excellent value but seemed to enjoy themselves too. The big choruses, where the two halves fire at each other were terrific, with the addition of horns, trumpets and drums creating a glorious, but sophisticated noise.

The orchestra made its own contribution. The famous number might indeed be the sinfonia that opens Part Three, taken at quite a lick by McCreesh, but here and elsewhere the orchestra brought admirable spring and bounce to the rhythms, along with lyricism when needed. Solo moments were fine indeed, from the two flutes to occasional oboes and, most memorably, the moments when Handel lets the bassoon off the leash. Glorious.

This was a performance that really drew you in. The singers’ diction was all top notch, not only could we understand the words (which is saying a lot when there are three soprano soloists) but the words meant something. This really was oratorio as sacred drama, and each singer was projecting character. Yes, the judgement scene is pure visual drama, but elsewhere we had that too. You always sensed Tim Mead’s feel for his character, whilst Rowan Pierce made a delightfully poised Queen and Anna Dennis projected a compelling regal sense at all times.

The space was just the right size, so that the louder passages flourished but the quieter ones had a lovely intimacy. This was a big event for Temple Music, and a resounding success. Whilst a Handel oratorio series is a big ask, it would be nice to hear another one.