The conductor stole our hearts.

I have attended many Messiah’s in Chicago. This was my first experience with the Seattle Symphony performance. I was very disappointed in the conductor’s interpretation of this beautiful Oratorio. His use of staccatos was monotonous and the pace was too fast. The soloists were good but hard to hear because the symphony was too loud during their performance. The conductor thought he was great! He was a conductor , vocal soloist and violin soloist. He was the big show! I wondered how the symphony and choir managed without his direction as he performed, but I guess they only needed him to keep up the fast pace. Hopefully, next year will be better with a different production and conductor.

We attended the Messiah on Saturday evening, Dec 15. The soprano solos were taken out. I can’t believe that there was no one in the chorus who could fill in.

My least favorite performance of Handel’s Messiah. Ever. As a vocalist and voice major, I have performed this piece as a soloist or chorus member for most of the last 43 years. Saturday night I felt as if I was force fed a sacred masterwork with no time to actually “experience” any part of it. This was no fault of the chorus. Rather, the rushed and frantic pace ( other than when performing as a counter tenor soloist) , conducted by Sinkovsky. His tempo failed to allow time for expression of emotion and what could have been profound and impactful crescendos and decrescendos. The conductors failure to recognize the chorus at both the intermission and the end of the performance was insulting. And though it appeared that the soprano soloist had fallen ill after her first aria, the lack of announcement regarding this and absence of her remaining pieces, seemed disrespectful to both soloist and audience. Mr. Sinkovsky should stick to violin or vocals and leave conducting to those who can.