The Roman Catholic church of St James’s Spanish Place, a beautiful, Victorian-gothic building round the corner from the Wallace Collection, has become the Wigmore Hall’s venue for occasional concerts on a larger scale than the Hall itself can accommodate. Later this month, Solomon’s Knot will perform their dramatisation of Bach’s St Matthew Passion here. The inaugural concert, however, was a grand, royal occasion, marking the recent coronation and given by Le Concert Spirituel under their founder-director Hervé Niquet.
King Charles was in the audience, arriving to a Royal Fanfare, in imitation French baroque style, by François Saint-Yves, before Roderick Williams sang God Save the King. The programme focused on Handel’s shoring up of the Protestant succession with his ceremonial music for George II, pairing the Coronation Anthems with the Dettingen Te Deum, the latter composed in 1743 to celebrate a Hanoverian victory against the French in the war of the Austrian succession. Just before the interval, meanwhile, King Charles presented Judith Weir, Master of the King’s Music, with Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society.
Niquet’s Handel, as one might expect, is superbly considered, strikingly reflective in this instance as well as lofty and exhilarating. These are works as much about faith, divine justice and spiritual responsibility as about pageantry or propaganda, and Niquet brought their devotional aspects very much to the fore. The emotional kernel of the Te Deum came at “We therefore pray thee, help thy servants,” when the drums of war and victory are silenced and uncertain stillness suddenly reigns. The famous opening of Zadok the Priest, written for the anointing in the coronation ceremony, was magnificently done – the accompaniment to a sacred mystery, rather than anything grandly majestic, with the choir’s first statement taking over and expanding the orchestral crescendo to breathtaking effect.
The acoustic in St James’s is on the reverberant side, and some vocal and instrumental detail was occasionally lost, particularly Handel’s swifter, more complex counterpoint. But elegance combined with excitement in the playing – all thrilling trumpet solos and refined strings – while the singing was beautiful in its fervour, sincerity and immaculate dynamic control.
• The concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 8 June.
