Stephen Cleobury - Handel: Israel in Egypt (2000)

Israel in Egypt is by far the most choral of all of Handel's oratorios. Indeed, Part II (which describes the plagues of Egypt with extraordinary vividness) is all chorus, apart from one short alto aria. For the most part, the King's College Choir, Cambridge, does a splendid job here. There's something unutterably beguiling about the freshness of children's voices in this context, especially when they are warmed with the delicate touch of vibrato which the "King's sound" requires. If the young singers do not have the sophistication of the adult female voices of, say, the Monteverdi Choir, they certainly have an unmistakable bloom. Cleobury keeps things very clear in the contrapuntal and fugal sections, but is less inspired in the passages that need more drama and orchestral color: the plagues of flies, lice, and locusts are woefully restrained, for example. The soloists, however, do their best to inject some theatricality during their arias. Ian Bostridge is in particularly fine form, and Susan Gritton sounds gorgeous. An attractive interpretation. -- Warwick Thompson