Michael Dervanreviews the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir at the National Concert Hall, Dublin.

RTÉ Philharmonic Choir,

RTÉ NSO/Markson

NCH, Dublin

Handel/Mozart - Messias.

Mozart's arrangement of Messiah was prepared for a performance in 1789. Handel's best-known oratorio was then not even half a century old, yet it was regarded as seriously out of date, and Mozart, who directed the performance himself, adapted the music to contemporary taste and realities.

He rescored it for the kind of orchestra he wrote for himself, clothing what must have seemed a kind of musical nakedness to late 18th-century ears with the covering of woodwind and brass. Yet at the same time he had to remove things, too. The art of high trumpet playing had died out, and, remarkable as it may seem, he redistributed the trumpet obligato in The Trumpet Shall Sound between trumpet and horn.

You won't find in Mozart's Handel the kind of alterations that Schumann introduced in his piano accompaniments for the solo violin works of Bach, or Grieg in his second piano additions to solo piano works by Mozart.

In this special anniversary year, it was almost inevitable that the Mozartean Messiah would put in a concert appearance. The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra was first off the mark with the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir under Gerhard Markson on Friday. Our Lady's Choral Society under Proinsias Ó Duinn follows next Wednesday.

Markson chose to offer the text in German as Mozart set it. This let everyone hear exactly what Mozart himself would have heard.

In terms of the actual music-making, the performance sounded rather less faithful. Mozart's often charming wind additions were mostly so downplayed that the delivery of them sounded almost apologetic. And the safe and steady, middle-of-the-road style of the performance contrasted strongly with the kind of vivid characterisation that is now common in Handel oratorios.

Markson was at his finest in handling the choral singing in moments of gentleness. Under his guidance, the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir sounded comfortable, and explored unusual avenues in gentleness of expression.

Soprano Ailish Tynan sang with superb control and imagination. Mezzo soprano Bridget Knowles was plainer in style, and the higher-lying the vocal line the freer she became in expression. Tenor Peter Auty was the most romantically inclined of the soloists, with moments of scooping more redolent of Italian opera than 18th-century oratorio. Baritone Roland Davitt sounded troubled and inadequate, woolly in articulation and unreliable on his highest notes.