The Handel and Haydn Society opened its 195th season last night in Symphony Hall with a program showcasing the acclaimed countertenor Andreas Scholl. It was also the official beginning of a new chapter in the organization’s long history, as the British conductor Harry Christophers takes over this year as artistic director.
It was, truth be told, a somewhat unusual way to begin a new era. Christophers’s schedule did not allow him to open the season himself, since he could not be present for the rehearsal period, yet he was available to attend last night’s performance, which he did, welcoming the audience from the stage, essentially in the role of host at his opening night.
Fortunately, he made sure that the performance was in good hands, those of the rising young French conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi, in his Boston debut. The founder of the France-based Ensemble Matheus, Spinosi made a particularly strong first impression last night bringing air and light, elegance and buoyancy to a program of mostly vocal works. He coaxed textural and coloristic subtleties from the orchestra and made notably resourceful use of the lower dynamic range. Not everything worked but a lot did, and a few meticulously placed pianissimos were breathtaking.
As it was though, with Scholl on hand, the night was naturally tilted toward arias by Handel and Vivaldi. This countertenor, of course, possesses a remarkable vocal instrument, and he sang with a liquid tone at once chaste and rich, pure and preternaturally mellifluous.
In these works, he brought out infinite shades of melancholy to striking effect, though not always with a vocal presence as assertive as one might wish. In the final aria of the Vivaldi cantata, “Cessate, omai cessate,’’ for instance, Scholl was covered by the modest orchestra. Vivaldi’s “Stabat Mater’’ received a rewarding performance full of thoughtful expressive shading, but one that ultimately left its dramatic depths unplumbed.
At plenty of other moments though, Scholl turned the intimate proportions of his art to full advantage. Among them was a lovely and touching rendition of “Aure, deh, per pieta’’ from “Giulio Cesare.’’
