The weight of Part Three
Nicholas McGegan is cutting Part Three of Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato for his project with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. He is also leaving out the organ concertos. The conductor says modern listeners expect a concert of two to two-and-a-half hours with one interval. That limit determines which music remains in the hall as well as the length of the evening. Cutting Part Three touches the sequence of thought leading to the work’s ending; omitting the organ concertos reduces the programme around the main work.[1]
The textual structure McGegan describes makes that distinction matter. Charles Jennens interwove two poems by John Milton, then wrote the words of the third part himself. The move into the final part changes textual authorship as well as musical material. Shortening that part therefore reduces the time listeners spend with Jennens’s own words. The balance depends on which passages go. Treating the decision simply as a way to finish earlier misses the connection between the programme’s duration and the text carried by the music.[1]
Who takes the boy’s part?
The soloists are Robin Johannsen, Fflur Wyn, Robin Tritschler and Matthew Brook. McGegan describes two sopranos, tenor and bass, with the lighter soprano taking material originally written for a boy. The same work is being assembled with different vocal forces. The distinction between the two sopranos matters alongside the voice type assigned to the earlier part. The conductor’s stated criterion gives the soprano roles a difference in weight, rather than treating their shared register as sufficient reason to make them interchangeable.[1]
This choice of forces makes the division of work among present-day singers explicit. McGegan sent an earlier performance recording to two soloists with whom he had already worked. His prepared orchestral parts contain bowings and written cadenzas, while singers can change the cadenzas. That gives preparation a common starting point without closing off the soloist’s contribution. Its practical value lies in bringing a defined musical arrangement to rehearsal, where choices can be altered rather than all having to be established from scratch.[1]
Breath sets a limit to speed
For tempos, McGegan consults a surviving duration index associated with John Christopher Smith’s barrel-organ arrangements from 1762. 19 pieces from L’Allegro are documented that way. He also stresses that singers have to breathe. The index provides a historical comparison for how long a movement may take; it cannot by itself determine where a present-day soloist can complete a phrase. In the preparation he describes, historical information and the body’s requirements meet in the same rehearsal. Choosing a speed requires both to be considered together.[1]
The orchestral seating belongs to the same practical work. McGegan wants the first and second violins beside each other because Handel often writes them in unison. His stated reason is that the players need to hear one another. Three concrete lines of the Warsaw programme emerge: music cut from Part Three, the soprano taking the boy’s material, and violin sections seated together. One affects the text’s weight, another the distribution of voices, and the third the conditions for playing together. The announced choices show where musical interpretation requires decisions before the first note is played.[1]