Alfred Deller

At school and university I was a great Wagner enthusiast and the baroque era meant almost nothing to me.  These days the position has almost completely reversed.  I can't remember the last time I listened to a complete Wagner opera and I rare listen to any extracts.  But Handel and Rameau are now very high on the list of composers to whom I return time and time again.

One of the reasons for this is undoubtedly the insights that the historically aware performance movement has brought to the performance of baroque opera.  In my students days there were some early stirrings of this but it had not really spread to opera.

One of the pioneers of "early music" was of course Alfred Deller and I find him a fascinating character.  One of the tracks on my Ipod which I play very regularly is his recording of

Per le porte del tormento from Handels Sosarme with Margaret Richie

Now in his day Deller was seen as a pioneer and yet this now seems completely outdated.   The tempo is impossibly slow - almost half the speed of some of the other recordings also on You Tube - and the orchestral sound is heavy and thick with almost no lightness and shade whatsoever.  Then there is Deller's voice.  It is completely mannered and precious and I can't imagine for one moment that this is the sort of sound that Handel would have been expecting.   I suspect that he would have expected a much more vigorous heroic voice which could have projected through to the back row of the theatre.

So overall I think that this is object lesson in how not to perform Handel.

And yet.........  I love it.  There is something quite magical in the way that Deller phrases, particular in the way he leans on the appogiaturas in a completely unforced way.  The control of the line is something that I don't think any other singer ever quite manage in the same way.

This is music making of the highest order (Margaret Ritchie by contrast is very ordinary) - it may have very little to do with Handel but it is something to treasure.