Emma Kirkby
REDISCOVERING HANDEL
Emma Kirkby Premieres a Newfound Gloria
Significant unknown works by major composers don't turn up every day. So the recording debut of Handel's Gloria, which arrives after being lost for more than 250 years, is something of a seismic event in the classical music world. Since Hamburg University Handel scholar Hans Joachim Marx announced his discovery in March 2001 -- he found the unsigned manuscript bound in a volume of collected opera arias in the library of London's Royal Academy of Music -- music lovers have waited to hear the piece. They will not be disappointed. It is a gorgeous seven-movement setting of the Gloria from the Catholic Mass, atypically scored for solo soprano and chamber ensemble. The Royal Academy's copy dates from the 1730s, at which time the composer was active in London, but from stylistic evidence, Marx dates the composition to 1707, when the young Handel was living in Italy in the service of Francesco Maria Ruspoli, one of the richest men in early-18th-century Rome. The Gloria is a virtuoso showpiece for its soloist, demanding a skilled singer, which makes it a natural fit for the dazzling Emma Kirkby. Since the 1970s, the English soprano has recorded Handel extensively. Indeed, she has defined for many the very sound of Baroque vocal music. From her London home, Kirkby spoke with Barnes & Noble.com's EJ Johnson about the premiere recording, undertaken in May 2001, and the extraordinary musical find.
Barnes & Noble.com: How did you learn about the discovery?
Emma Kirkby: I heard about it first on the radio. Well, I didn't actually hear the radio item, but afterward, by the end of that day, various other parents at my son's school were all saying, "Oh, you're going to sing this Gloria." And I said, "Well, I don't know. Nobody's asked me." And apparently what somebody had said was, "Oh, this is far too difficult for singers nowadays." And somebody else said, "Oh no, there are singers who could do it. Emma Kirkby, for instance." [laughs]
B&N.com: So how did you become involved in the recording?
EK: It was simply coincidence, really. The Royal Academy wanted to get their chance to do it, to record it first, because it belongs to them. And they wanted to get a chance to put something on the market that would give them a profile, and also, perhaps, if it made any money, it would pay for some of their students' scholarships. You know, that sort of thing. And they approached Robert von Bahr [of Bis Records] because they really knew him. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood [director of studies] at the Academy is very alert. He's not just a very good administrator, he's a very good musician and record producer, and he knew and admired Robert von Bahr. And so he asked him if he would do it with a very good singer they've got at the Academy now. To which Robert von Bahr said well, the record would last a bit longer if you used your orchestra, but used someone [as soloist] who's really a little bit known.
B&N.com: Like yourself.
EK: Yes. And Robert had just brought out a Handel CD [Handel: Sacred Cantatas] that I had done with the London Baroque of precisely this repertoire, really. So that was how it came about. Robert knew it was a repertoire that suited me and suggested that I should join the Academy to do this. And everyone was quite happy about that, I think. And it was a fun experience.
B&N.com: Were you surprised by the high quality of the piece?
EK: I think it's a lovely piece. I mean, I think the surprise is that it stayed unknown for so long. I'm really not very interested in the controversy, whether it's by Handel or not. It seems to me quite like other pieces of his that I've sung, but I'm not a musicologist, you know. My answer is, if it's Handel, well, that's fine. It's one of his nice pieces. He wrote plenty more. If it's not Handel, it's almost more interesting. Then who did write it? Because whoever did was very good. But I think it's quite likely to be him. It's got lots of variety. It's touching and exciting by turns, and it's a very nice piece. But when all is said and done, it's only 16 minutes long. And so in some ways I find the hype slightly comical. Claims and counterclaims, you know. [laughs] Fodder for somebody's dissertation.
B&N.com: Do you anticipate it becoming part of the standard repertoire?
EK: Well, I think that's entirely likely, for the very good reason that it's easy to put on. It has no winds, just strings. Indeed, it has no violas, even, which strongly suggests you could just as well do it with a very small group. I shall probably do it quite a lot with the London Baroque in the future just for fun. Because where you get two violins and no viola, that's quite a lot of Handel repertoire that was definitely played by the likes of Corelli and Scarlatti in those little evenings in the Ruspoli Palace. It's, I think, very feasible, therefore, with six or seven people. So, from that point of view I think it will be very welcome in the repertoire. It's a nice sing for the soprano. If you have a slightly bigger orchestra, that's also very nice. Then you can use solo and chorus effects.
B&N.com: It is a relatively short piece, but there was quite a rapid succession from announcement of discovery to first recording. Would you have preferred more time?
EK: If you perform something many times and then record, that's always a pleasure, but sometimes you have to do things for the first time on record. I had enough time to get an idea of it, I think. And we had quite intense rehearsals before with the orchestra. That's not to say that another six months to a year, particularly with chances to perform, would have been even better. But you can't always do that, can you?
B&N.com: Did the recording sessions have extra significance, because it is a premiere?
EK: Yes, everyone was very excited. Also, the significance for me, in a way, is that now the Royal Academy has a Baroque orchestra on its own. There are four music colleges [in London], and up till now the Baroque playing has been sort of split between them. And the fact that now there's one college that can actually field it's own Baroque band is quite exciting -- that more and more people are trying to play in this way, and the standards are going up all the time. So that was part of the excitement for them. I think it was their first professional venture. The man in charge, [conductor] Laurence Cummings, is very, very good, very inspiring. So that certainly helped.
B&N.com: Do you think a like discovery could occur again?
EK: Well, who knows? This one was rather surprising. It had been seen before, but I don't think any one person saw all three versions. I believe there was one set of parts in Egam, which actually had Handel firmly written on the front page! [laughs] So, I suppose it's not inconceivable. But haven't people just discovered some Bach suites?
B&N.com: Yes, a couple of years ago.
EK: That's pretty exciting. Yes. I mean these things do happen sometimes. But having said that, we are lucky how much we have got by theses giants. But I think we forget how lucky we are to have wondrous stuff left by slightly less well-known people. Not so much the discovery, but the actual performance and presentation of works of lesser-known composers can have an equivalent impact if we allow it to, if we can get our minds away from the market and the sort of magnetic impact of well-known names. That's where the real excitement is. How much is buried still in Italy, for instance? Just huge, huge amounts of repertoire. New composers pop up -- I mean not new, but newly discovered composers -- almost monthly. And even in England, people really don't know what was happening between Purcell and Handel, for instance. And the answer is quite a lot. So, I think in this day when we've got amazing multimedia possibilities, and everything's on the Net, and everything's around, if people look, I think they can find incredible riches. They just have to be a little bit more innovative sometimes, try new things. At the same time, we've got more talented young players and singers than ever before. So the answer is for those guys to get looking and see what new repertoire they can find, even in the old establishments. I think there's really a lot of music to be enjoyed and revived, even aside from the big names.
B&N.com: Well, it's a lovely recording, and I congratulate you for it.
EK: Thank you. I really enjoyed it. It was good fun, I must say.
June 23, 2001 EJ Johnson
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